For 7 years, Aldo, a laborer in a sugar refinery in the town of Goriano, has been living with his mistress, Irma, and their young daughter. Word arrives that Irma's husband has died, and Aldo announces that they will marry immediately and legitimize their child. But Irma rejects him and instead chooses another man. Distraught and disillusioned, Aldo takes his daughter and sets out to find a new life. His wanderings through the Po Valley lead him to three other women: Elvia, a former girl friend, now a forlorn seamstress; Virginia, a widow who runs a roadside service station; and Andreina, a prostitute as lost and desolate as himself. After sending his daughter back to her mother, he continues his search, but, haunted by his memories of Irma, he eventually returns to Goriano. The town is about to be demolished to make way for a jet airfield, and Irma is contentedly living a new and better life. Filled with despair, Aldo climbs to the top of the refinery where he once worked. Irma follows him and sees him plunge to his death.