Bologna, 1976. The paths of two aimless young friends intertwine with those of Radio Alice, a pirate radio politically aligned with the leftist student movement.
Three young women at home, the eye of the camera doesn't leave them for a moment and shows them first in a narrow kitchen, then in a small bathroom in front of a mirror, then in a bare living room where they spend part of the evening. The three are the mistress of the house and her servants, and the film is based on Les Bonnes by Genet. The servants pretend to unite to varying degrees against their mistress, and she, in turn, pretends to be a mistress who doesn't give explicit orders but who makes herself admired anyway. Each one of them plays the part that is most congenial to her.
Médée, héroïne du mythe grec, est devenue Irène, qui vit aujourd'hui parmi nous. Elle est une étrangère qui a abandonné sa terre d'origine, pour épouser un Français, Jason, le père de ses deux enfants. Elle chante chaque soir dans un cabaret pour subvenir aux besoins de sa famille. Un jour pourtant, Jason la quitte pour une autre, une française.
Italian police inspector Coliandro — an ignorant, boorish, but fundamentally kind-hearted oaf, whose entire worldview is informed by American cop movies — protects the good citizens of Bologna, routinely saving the day and foiling the plans of evildoers of all sorts by a combination of dumb luck and genuine bravery, while always falling hopelessly in love with the woman at the center of the case.