Turin, a nice midsummer day in 1938: in his dim-lit study-room a 60 year old man on a wheel chair and with his right hand amputated, starts writing his memories: the "life of a stupid man who murdered his own wife". In Neaples in 1914 a young cavalry captain, Maurizio Della Morte, has a love affair with Donna Almerinda, young and beautiful wife of an aged Judge of the supreme Court, Francesco Ruglia. She lives this relation with a deep feeling of guilt.