The Santoro family lives in a large country villa, headed by the elderly Teodora. Each one freely gives vent to his passions in a morbid emotional balance that breaks when Rodolfo, following a bad fall from a horse, remains paralyzed. Theodora, who wants to curb his passionate wife, Eleonora, decides that Riccardo, Rodolfo's son, will end up in the arms of his stepmother.