I. The Light from the other House
The lonely, ill-fated Tullio Buti rents a room in Naples from mother and daughter Nini.
Later, as he sits in it in the dark, it suddenly becomes bright - the light from the neighbouring flat of the Masci family shines up to him, and he observes the now appearing intimitate family scene with emotion and pain, feeling the gloom within him gradually fade away.
Night after night he sits now in his observation post, until - from window to window - he meets Margherita Masci, from whom a love scene unexpectedly arises. Margherita then leaves her husband and three children and moves away with Tullio.
Months later, both of them return like outcasts and rent the room again so that they can see Margherita's family without being recognized - and now live on the light from the other house.
II. The Journey
Adriana Braggi, widowed for several years and living in extreme seclusion in a Sicilian village with her two adolescent sons and her brother-in-law Cesare Braggi, suffers a convulsive attack at the table.
The family doctor, who was quickly consulted, told Cesare that she probably has an incurable tumor and recommends a more detailed examination by a colleague in Palermo.
Against Adriana's resistance, Cesare sets off there with her, and the journey that now begins and then ends in Venice via Naples - interrupted by a further medical examination that brings little hope - becomes a journey from which there can be no return - a journey into the intoxicating life, to the love for Cesare that has long been hidden and finally into the inevitable death.