A hot-shot police officer has more guts than brains, often landing him in hot water with his middle-aged mentor, who was once a legendary cop responsible for numerous large scale arrests.

Documentary compiled from archives and accompanied by a poet's commentary, shows the sweep of modern Italian history from 1911 to 1961, centering on the conditions leading to Fascism and the post-WWII reaction to the Fascist experience.

This short film is the only cinematographic experience of Alberto Moravia. It shows some typical themes of the writer: the bourgeois setting, the taste for detail, the eros and the violence that scratch indifference.