Ora e per sempre

Life on the island of Pantelleria is becoming more difficult by the day. The ferries to the Sicilian mainland have problems running on time because of a strong wind that rises up with no warning, leaving havoc and ruin in its wake. Michele Giangrande is a rich landowner who lives in Palermo.

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.

Fascism has forced the leadership of the Italian Communist Party to settle in Paris. In Italy arrests of militants are decimating the organization, so Emilio is sent on a mission in the area of Turin, to put out of harm whistleblowers.