Suffering depression and exhaustion, he decides to disappear for a while, hiding incognito in Paris, France at the home of a former lover, Danielle, who is now married to a famous film director by whom she has a school-age daughter.

His right-hand man, Andrea Bottini, does not lose faith, but instead gets the idea of secretly substituting Oliveri's twin brother, Giovanni Ernani, an over-the-top writer and philosopher who has previously spent time in mental health care and is still medicated.

Complications ensue, but the substitute proves more outgoing, more visionary, and much more popular with the press, the public and even with his competitors than his more serious brother, and he leads the party towards victory.

The real senator rediscovers himself while watching his brother's success from afar through the French newspapers as he himself dallies in the arms of lovers.

While some have found the film somewhat lightweight,[5] an extended quotation from Berthold Brecht placed in the mouth of the mad brother reveals the director's intent: when politicians and political institutions fail, only the spirit and individual efforts of the people can rescue a nation from crisis.