In 1949, schoolteacher Pier Paolo Pasolini is accused of statutory rape. No complaint has been lodged: the carabinieri act only basing themselves on rumors going around. As a result, Pier Paolo is both excluded from the communist party and banned from teaching. Forced to leave Friuli, he chooses to go to Rome. His mother, who has accompanied him, becomes a cleaning lady there but, for his part, the young man cannot find work.