The story take place between the two world wars. Having married Ortelia, daughter of Crippa, Bellano’s late butcher, Amleto Selva thought he could finally settle down. But the marriage proved to be scarce in terms of satisfaction, especially from a certain point of view, and Amleto still felt young and vigorous! And so Dr. Durini, the town’s general practitioner and leader of a band of friends devoted to good living and frequent patronage of the Lecco bordello, stepped in. The fraternal group, caring little or nothing about the new political movement called fascism that was growing up around them, focussed their full attention on living as provincial playboys...
From the novel "Il segreto di Ortelia" by Andrea Vitali.