Luisa, a wealthy widow accustomed to organizing social parties, has been having an unhappy passionate affair for a year with Fabrizio, one of her janitors, who humiliates and exploits her. In order to escape this situation, she moves to a small fishing village, where she seduces a young boatman who is already romantically linked to Mariella, the poor but beautiful soap-and-water girl who is called the "fishermen's angel" in the village.