[1] Achille De Bellis is a wealthy manager of a large hotel chain, property of the family of his wife Gigliola for generations.

While Gigliola is struggling with the preparations for their 25th wedding anniversary party, Achille fires a chronically depressed hotel maid (Annarita) for the theft of an expensive laptop.

Annarita's son Orfeo, a 24 year old waiter stressed by his mother's depressive crises and by their unhappy economic situation, pleads with Achille to no avail.

Orfeo persecutes the two lovers through intimidation and small acts of vandalism, until he openly threatens Achille to reveal his affair.

Orfeo finds the girl working as a waitress in Geneva, at the Grand Cafè Istanbul, where they make peace.