Olmi's most complex, modernist film tells its story in quick, vivid bits of action and dialogue that stretch elliptically across a summer. The film examines the life of an upper-class Milanese family, and zeroes in on the mother and father, whose lives are changed in subtle but decisive ways by two striking events in their lives: the mother witnesses a car accident and becomes attached to the boy who's been injured, while the father suffers the indignity of an aggressive seminar called the “Business Game,” which his company has obliged him to attend. This is perhaps the most piercing of Olmi's films, perhaps because it's one of the rare times he's explored an upper-class milieu. As Gavin Millar writes, “Without sacrificing any of his ‘humanity,' or his realistic approach, Olmi has moved onto a different plane of filmmaking.”