[4] Karen Stone, an acclaimed American stage actress and her businessman husband are off on holiday to Rome.

A year later, the Contessa Magda Terribili-Gonzales, a procurer, introduces her to a handsome, well-dressed, narcissistic young Italian named Paolo, who is one in her stable of professional gigolos.

Abandoned by Paolo, ridiculed by the Contessa, with her only real friend, Meg, on a plane to New York, Mrs. Stone looks over her balcony and sees the ragged, mysteriously menacing young man who has followed her everywhere since the day she moved in, pacing.

The youth comes into the apartment and walks toward her slowly, hands deep in the pockets of his filthy coat, smiling faintly as his shadow fills the screen.

Williams had approval over director and screenwriter; he had worked with Quinetero several times in the theatre and admired Gavin Lambert's The Slide Area.

"[6] Variety called it a "gloomy, pessimistic portrait of the artist as a middle-aged widow" adding the "curiosity factor" in Leigh's appearance might "avert the dubious boxoffice career which the enterprise might be destined" as the film "seems in for some tough sledding, principally because of the unhappy, unsavory characters... an audience will have enormous difficulties establishing compassion, let alone idetification.

In 2003, an Emmy-award-winning made-for-cable version was produced for Showtime Networks starring Helen Mirren, Anne Bancroft, and Olivier Martinez.