When aspiring singer Aida (Claudia Cardinale) meets smooth-talking playboy Marcello (Corrado Pani), she believes his big line about advancing her career. When he dumps her weeks later, she's shell-shocked, and turns up on his front door for want of anywhere else to go. There she meets Marcello's teenage brother, Lorenzo (Jacques Perrin), who falls in love with her on the spot. He steals money in order to set her up in a nice hotel and begins courting her in earnest.