A typical American living room of a New England home. Its occupants have changed throughout the century. In the 1950s, a boy named Richard was born here. This room is where he spent his childhood and adolescence, where he graduates from high school, and where he brings his fiancée Margaret into the house. The young family is having children, all the happiest moments of their lives take place here, and here are the sad ones. The children get grandchildren, and Richard and Margaret begin to realize that their time is passing.

1950. In the home of a wealthy Neapolitan family, a luxurious carriage-bed was delivered straight from Versailles for a baby about to be born right in the waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea. A girl was born, and she was named Partenope in honor of the ancient Greek nymph whose name was once called Naples. Perfect in everything the girl lived to the fullest: changed lovers and hobbies, tried to start a career as an actress, studied to be an anthropologist and danced until morning. The brilliant life of the favorite of fate overshadowed only one event - the suicide of his brother Raphael, faded in the rays of bright Partenope.