Emanuele is 54 and a director at the theater. He is working on a monologue for one of his plays, adapted from "Nyotchka Nezvanova" (“The Strange Covenant of Love”), an unfinished novel by Dostoevsky. For the female lead he chooses Irene, a strong and determined young woman who nevertheless has something fragile and insecure about her.
Emanuele has a secret: in a hidden room he pays homage to the few women he ever truly loved in his life. No one knows who these women from Emanuele's past are. An entire wall, full of pictures, is dedicated to each of them. Only one last wall is empty - on to this wall, Emanuele projects a collage of other women's faces. Where are these young women now?
Meanwhile, the relationship between Emanuele and Irene oscillates between work and private life which puts Emanuele in a rather awkward position. Irene, on the other hand, without realizing it, is getting closer and closer to the blank wall where maybe one day her paintings will hang. Maybe.