Burned-out members of the Italian intelligentsia gather for dinner on the terrace of a posh Roman villa in this satirical comedy drama. Included are film producer Amedeo Ugo Tognazzi and his wife Ombretta Colli a former actress. Magazine editor Luigi Marcello Mastroianni and his estranged wife and journalist Carla Carla Gravina are joined by Mario Vittorio Gassman and his lover Giovanna Stefania Sandrelli. Enrico Jean Louis Trintignant is the comedy writer who finds his work is not funny anymore. All of the middle-aged guests are victims of the turbulent 1970s that are confusing to men as women assert themselves in a changing society.