Vittorio (Vitaliano Trevisan) and Sonia (Michela Cescon) meet through an ad. When she asks him whether she looks like what he had expected, he says he thought she would be thinner. In fact, she is a woman of very normal weight, not even anyone who needs the shedding of a few pounds. Sonia should have gotten away quickly, which she starts to do, but Vittorio is quietly persuasive and she needs an attachment.

The audience can see how screwed up he is when we witness a scene with a psychiatrist, to whom Vittorio complains that everything ends up the same way. Keep taking your pills, he is advised. A goldsmith, Vittorio in his twisted view sees Sonia in the way he strips away everything extraneous to get his pure gold. Thinner and thinner means purer and purer.

The screenplay by director Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso and Trevisan details the process by which Sonia is prodded to lose more and more weight and acquiesces out of her neediness. One of the best scenes occurs in a restaurant when the look Vittorio gives her compels her to order only a salad, while he orders a hearty dish of pasta. When he leaves the table to chat with friends, the sight of the pasta, filmed in close-up for emphasis, is too much for Sonia to endure. She begins eating it little by little, then seizes the plate and, with Vittorio in hot pursuit, runs into the kitchen, where she begins gobbling everything in sight.