[2] Michele Apicella, an MP for the Italian Communist Party, is involved in a car accident and consequently loses his memory.

Michele is also a player for the Monteverde water polo team; he joins the team on a trip to play an important match in Sicily which will decide who wins the league, despite being uncertain of his own identity.

The match lasts all day and well into the night, and throughout, Michele engages in conversations with other players, a trade unionist, the referee, a Catholic, a journalist and his daughter, in an attempt to reconstruct his sense of self.

As the match drags on, the spectators and players become increasingly engrossed by the film Doctor Zhivago, which is playing on a TV screen in the bar.

Driving back to Rome with his daughter, he loses control of his car and the film ends with a dream-like sequence as a crowd gathers on a hill, looking up to the sun.