Michele Apicella (Nanni Moretti) is a young filmmaker on a lecture tour, speaking to audiences after screenings of his films. An insistent audience member (Dario Cantarelli) who appears at all the different venues repeatedly tells Michele that his films lack social relevance, challenging him to ‘show this film to a labourer from Basilicata, a shepherd from Abruzzo or a housewife from Treviso’.Having finished the lecture tour, Michele returns home to the house that he shares with his mother (Piera Degli Esposti) and begins working on a new project, a film called Freud’s Mother. The strain of making the film takes its toll on him, and he retreats into a dream world in which he works as a teacher at a school and falls in love with one of his students, Silvia (Laura Morante). The dream turns sour as Silvia announces that she is moving to Argentina and will be gone for two years. This separation from Silvia drives Michele to the brink, and upon her return he transforms into a werewolf and chases her out of a restaurant, shouting ‘I’m a monster and I love you!’