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The family d'Alberti is ruined, and their only chance to avoid dishonor and suicide is to have the daughter Elena married to the rich Andrea, who recently has bought their palace anonymously including the portrait of her beauty. But Elena loves a young doctor without fortune and future, who is just leaving for Africa. For her family's sake, Elena sees no choice but to marry Andrea (Amedeo Nazzari) without loving him. He was enamored with her portrait, but when she confesses that she doesn't love him but only married him to save her family and father from suicide, he turns into callous stone and will have nothing more to do with her except as social obligations require. There are many more twists and complications to this relationship, the major one being that she gradually falls in love with him but without any response from him. He has a female cousin who is very jealous of him, and with her husband, managing the estate, they enter the dangerous minefield of foul play.

As Andrea's major work is a mine industry, there is a great sequence after half of the film of a mine disaster, reminding of "The Stars Look Down", in epic Italian Neo-realism, which is the epic chapter of the film. The rest is intrigue, melodrama and almost murder, Amedeo Nazzari's part is typical of him, perfectly controlled in strict adherence to conventional acting, while the great part is Myriam Bru as Elena, irresistible in her beauty and gripping in her pathos. She would five years later make Katiusha in the German. Italian production of Tolstoy's "Resurrection", the best film version of that novel. In brief, if you love and understand Italian cinema, this film is one of many musts.