Marriage Italian Style

In Naples, 40-year-old Filumena Marturano has been rushed home, deathly ill, from the bakery where she works. When she requests not a doctor but a priest at this time, 50-year-old multiple-business-owner Domenico Soriano--Dummi' in more familiar settings--who is looking after her, reflects on the 22 years they have known each other. Their initial meeting was during the war in a house of ill repute, she a naive, 17-year-old fresh from the country working there, he a customer--though not hers. It wouldn't be until two years later that they would run into each other again and begin this off-and-on relationship, in which he would always have the upper hand, manipulating her and the situation to his benefit which he knew he could do because of his relative economic standing compared to hers, and the fact that he knew that she has always been in love with him. The nature of their relationship was also as it was due to his frequent absences for work, often months at a time. This situation allowed him to have other women in his life at the same time. The story then shifts to an aspect of Filumena's life of which Dummi' has been unaware: her long-term relationships with three men he doesn't know: Umberto, a student; Riccardo, a glove salesman; and Michele, a mechanic; the three also don't know one another. When Dummi' finds out about them, he must decide how it will affect his life and his thoughts of Filumena.