We are in the early fifties. Miranda manages an inn in the lower Po valley. Her husband Gino has been declared missing in the last War and the woman keeps hoping that he will return some day. Meanwhile she flirts now with another lover, teasing them and tempting them, using erotic and provoking tactics. There is Carlo the elderly ex-diplomat, there is Berto a truck driver, and there is Nor-man a young American globetrotter for whom the woman really los-es her heart and head and for whom she decides to leave every-thing. But once she receives the official news that has been killed in the war Miranda decides to stay at the inn where a stout young wait-er called Toni is awaiting her; he has always loved her secretly and silently and has always been close to her.