Set in 1950s Sicily, an Italian-American man named Anthony Tursi (Giuliano Gemma) arrives on the island to bury his late father and gets caught up in the tumultuous affairs of the aristocratic Villafratti family. Headed by Count Carlo Villafratti (Max von Sydow), the household is spiraling into moral decay, social unrest from striking plantation workers, and deadly conflicts between local communists and the Mafia. Amid this turmoil, dark secret desires within the family erupt into tragic violence and suicide.