Shocked one morning by seeing the corpse of a girl who had thrown herself from a building, she is comforted by Giovanni, a kindly older man whose business is breeding flowers.

Contrasting the mess of her own life with the simple purity of his, she resolves to return to the family home and see her sister Anna, whose wedding she failed to attend.

While Anna is glad to see her and her mother accepts her back, her father refuses to acknowledge her existence and Nando, her sister's husband, regards her as fair game.

Riccardo then learns from the girl in the village post office that Giovanni is coming to claim Paola, so he threatens to reveal her past if she does not succumb again.

Rossellini planned to shoot at the railway yards in San Lorenzo in Rome, but these were hit by a heavy Allied bombing raid the night before filming was due to start.