Lorenzo is a civil servant who wearily drags his business in Milan between meetings, a wink to his secretary and the latest hallway gossip with his colleague. One day, more dazed than usual, he leaves the office and wanders off. By chance, he meets Cristina, a university student seemingly convinced of her incarcerated brother's revolutionary ideas, but is unable to detach herself from the bourgeois complex assured to her by her family.

The fanatically uncompromising Len Rowan and his family insult and terrorize the citizens of a small town for years. One day the comment of a saleswoman about Len's son not being able to pay his sweets triggers off his persecution complex. As revenge for the believed insult, the whole family starts stalking the shop owner and her husband... until this escalates and the old man gets badly injured. Len is arrested, but gets off, free on bail. His clever attorney delays the court session for more than a year - while Rowan keeps threatening the witnesses. But then, the people feel they've had enough of this and decide to take the law in their own hands...