In a foggy, nocturnal Turin, 40-something Nicola owns a factory that is on the brink of closing, a victim of the economic crisis that is hitting the entire country hard. But Nicola is proud and refuses to give up. He has decided to go to any lengths to solve his problems. His wife Laura is more and more remote, but Nicola does nothing to restore their intimacy. With the factory workers pressing him to learn their fate, Nicola realizes that something is menacing the only certainty left to him: his marriage. Instead of confronting Laura, though, he follows her to confirm his suspicions, which brings the situation to a head. Nicola is floundering and it brings out his worst. Then all the problems seem to get resolved: the factory, his marriage, his social status. But there are dirty secrets to this success, and the portrayal takes on Dostoyevskian overtones.