The story is set in Naples, in the home of Baron Ottavio De Duca and his wife Aspasia. The couple get along well, but their days, though free of conflict, drift drearily toward old age. They both feel the absence of a child and an heir. The baroness channels her maternal instinct into caring for their old dog. The baron, who somatizes his frustration into a plethora of psychosomatic illnesses, decides to track down a secret son born from a fleeting premarital affair with a singer.