Luisa Latin, betrayed by her husband, is imprisoned for the murder of her husband's mistress - who is still alive. When Luisa is released from prison, she kills her.
After the Nazis take her husband away, an illiterate old washerwoman joins the Resistance as a bike courier in the Central Italian countryside.
This slight skewering of the mindset of the Fascist era when Italy’s “White Telephone” films (conservative minded sophisticated comedy-dramas revolving around the bourgeoisie) were in vogue gives Agostina Belli her best role – an ambitious Venetian girl that goes from chambermaid to prostitute to singer to film-star to mistress of ‘Il Duce’! – for which she received a special David Di Donatello award, the Italian equivalent of the Oscar.
