Plot

In an industrial area, unstable Giuliana attempts to cope with life by starting an affair with a co-worker at the plant her husband manages.

In a bleak rundown industrial area, young Giuliana tries to cope with life. She's married to Ugo, the manager of a local plant, but is having an affair with one of his co-workers, Corrado Zeller, who is visiting. Giuliana is unstable, not quite knowing anymore whether her role is wife, mother, or just another person in the world. Her escape from life is short-lived: Zeller is just using her to satisfy his own needs and desires.—garykmcd

Against the grim backdrop of Ravenna's barren industrial wastelands brimming with flame-belching factories and deleterious chemical fumes, Giuliana, a deeply dejected young mother on the brink of a total existential breakdown, seeks solace with one of her neglectful husband's handsome associates, Corrado Zeller. Alienated after that horrible car accident and utterly disarmed by him, Giuliana embarks on a hasty, shallow affair hoping to overcome the insurmountable obstacles of her profound, yet quiet, mental anguish; however, her spiritual catharsis still seems so far away. In the end, is isolation Giuliana's only refuge?—Nick Riganas

Giuliana has just returned from treatment at a mental institution. Ravenna, her hometown, once a sleepy port, is drastically changing into a new industrial hub with colossal smokestacks, sprawling factory complexes, and petroleum swamps replacing the trees cottages, and waterways. As Giuliana becomes increasingly disconnected from her family and environment, a stranger comes to town, himself a displaced soul who seems to be the only one who understands her. But the merciless progress of industrialization continues to mock her efforts to regain her sanity in an increasingly-dehumanized world.—rooprect

Cold, rain, and fog surround a plant in Ravenna. Factory waste pollutes local lakes; hulking anonymous ships pass or dock and raise quarantine flags. Guiliana, a housewife married to the plant manager, Ugo, hides her mental illness from her husband. She meets Zeller, an engineer en route to Patagonia to set up a factory. He pursues her, they join friends for a dinner party of sexual play; then, while Ugo is away on business, she fears that her son has polio. When she discovers the boy is faking, she goes to Zeller, panicked that no one needs her. He takes advantage of her distress, and she is again alone and ill.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>