Il Sole Anche di Notte plot
1750. Sergio, an aristocrat, is overjoyed when he is appointed aide-de-camp to the king. He is about to marry a woman of the higher aristocratic circles but then discovers that she has been the mistress of the same king. Embittered, he decides to isolate himself from the world, first as a priest and later as a hermit. He is almost seduced by a woman but barely manages to resist this "fate" by cutting off a finger. Later he succumbs to the temptation of a young girl. Dejected by his own weakness, he wanders as a beggar.