A young Russian store clerk has a drab existence in times of shortages and is berated by her ailing mother for not seeing men. So she brings home an unknown young man who she met on the tram. She dreams many things but pines for this man.

A Soviet trade union delegation arrives in Venice. Surrounded by “production pioneers,” the film’s heroine stands out like a “black sheep.” A Russian intellectual with the classical name Chloe, finding herself abroad for the first time—and in the very homeland of Casanova, no less—falls in love with an Italian named Lorenzo, unaware that he is a con artist and a gigolo who preys on wealthy women...