Eclipse opens with a nearly wordless sequence in which Vittoria (Monica Vitti), within the well-appointed walls of her lover's home, breaks off their affair. Vitti's hair blows delicately, incongruously; it's just the wind of a fan, but, following on L'Avventura, there may be hope here. Vittoria drifts downtown and into a love affair with her mother's young stockbroker, Pierre (Alain Delon). Two frenzied scenes of the Stock Exchange provide a hub for this film's seminal study of personal relationships in modern society. Men embrace as they whisper treacherous secrets, while Vitti's performance is a dress-rehearsal for Red Desert: when she is touched she recoils like an animal, when she is kissed it is as if she is sinking in quicksand. But Vittoria seeks after symbols of freedom-she dreams of Africa, of wild dogs, airplanes, another possible way of living. Eclipse ends with a 7-minute montage of shots of the spots where Vittoria and Pierre met-a montage, passing from afternoon to night, in which neither of the characters appears.