Frederico Fendi, a Rome-based lawyer, is not totally fulfilled despite his professional success, as he is still single and lives with his mother, these issues which he contemplates more and more as he reaches middle age. Things have the potential to change when he falls in love at first sight with a woman he spots on the street. Those dreams are dashed when he learns the woman, Carla, is engaged to Renzo, a friend of his from school. However, Renzo, without telling Carla the reason, breaks off the engagement when he suspects that in addition to her job as a model at a fashion house, that she works as a high priced prostitute. Regardless, Frederico, still obsessed with her, starts to court her despite these suspicions about her which he also has. Frederico's love for her wavering with shame for having these feelings about a prostitute lead to he trying to find out definitively if she really is a prostitute in setting up an appointment with her through the discrete madame, antiques store operator Emma Valadier, for who evidence points to she is working. These suspicions not only have an affect on Frederico within the relationship, but also Carla who has long suffered doubts about her own self-worth.