Napoleone is an artist bored of his married life, leaves home and applies to work as a gardener at a summer mansion in the island of Elba. His employers' daughter, an attractive teenage girl, Paola meets him there. She is living with her mother and stepfather in the mansion. The mother is soon attracted to Napoleone but he has a growing affection for Paola, fuelled by her flirtatious behavior and his passion eventually turns into violence against a mentally disturbed fisherman courting Paola.