A young architect, Luca Fabiani, arrives in Venice to restore an ancient building in the Jewish ghetto. Here he discovers that on the top floor there is an apartment still inhabited by Elio Sorani, an elderly writer who has been living in seclusion for years, immersed in his memories. Elio is often visited by Giulia, a young woman who exchanges furtive and quick conversations with him. Giulia has an art gallery, where she meets with the man she is having an affair with, the Russian Sacha, an art critic who has now become a mediator of paintings between Italy and Russia. After overcoming an initial moment of mistrust, Luca and Elio become friends, and Elio gives Luca the manuscript of an unpublished novel, which Luca believes will enable him to reconstruct the writer's past.