Two of Italy's greatest film stars, Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, are united in this special film about two special people. The day is May 8, 1939, the day of a huge rally celebrating Hitler's visit to Rome which underscored the infamous alliance between the Nazis and Mussolini's fascist regime. But this serves only as a background to the story on which the film focuses: A somewhat different alliance transpiring this same day. In this brief encounter, an intimate drama unfolds between two unlikely people, Antonietta (Sophia Loren), a worn out and weary housewife, and Gabriele (Marcello Mastroianni), a former radio announcer. An accidental meeting brings them together for almost two hours of comic and touching confidences, arguments and self-searching.