As in The Railroad Man, Germi casts himself in the role of his working-class hero, here, a lonely factory worker in Rome who starts an affair with a young neighbor when his wife and son leave town, and then, when he realizes she can't live without him, must deal with consequences more emotionally frightening than he could have imagined. Like the earlier film, this one is admired for the truths it seeks for its struggling characters. Pierre Leprohon wrote, "If his films are melodramatic it is because they are faithful reflections of reality, a reality closely defined in terms of race and class. Germi puts the whole of himself into these two films....He never resorts to tricks of style or doublethink. He is simple and direct, taking us straight to the heart of his milieu, those 'average' families continental critics and public detest, though for different reasons."