The only rule of passion is that passion knows no rules.
Nina’s political passion is her daily bread. An uncompromising left-wing idealist, she believes in what she does and is convinced of the need to fight for a better world. She lives with Bernardo, a young intellectual and an up-and-coming – though not yet firmly established – writer: someone who seems destined to remain a promising young talent forever.
The exact opposite of Giulio, scion of a wealthy business dynasty and as arrogant and uncaring a person as can be. Somebody who has no use for a better world. Little wonder that his girlfriend is Simonetta, a bubbly blonde who struggles with the simple rules of grammar.
Nina and Giulio have a chance meeting, and it is hatred at first sight. He is precisely the type of man Nina has always despised. She is precisely the type of woman Giulio has always ignored. Different worlds, different ways of thinking, different ideals (or lack of the same). But the boundary between love and hate can be a shifting one, and it takes very little to upset the sentimental realms of two couples that had appeared to be set in stone.
Because when passion steps in to overwhelm them (a disquieting passion, she says… a “sinistral” passion!), everything that once seemed certain and fixed is left by the wayside and every difference disappears, turning their lives upside down.
But are there really no rules in love?
Nina and Giulio don’t know the answer, but certainly nothing will hold them back until they find out.
Freely based on Chiara Gamberale’s novel Una Passione Sinistra, the film is a slyly ironic comedy that takes a look at the subversive force of passion, showing how the heart and the powers of reason are seldom on a first-name basis.