A wealthy Italian household is turned upside down when a handsome stranger (Terence Stamp) arrives, makes love to every family member and then disappears. Each has an epiphany of sorts, but none can figure out who the seductive visitor was or why he came.

We are with Pasolini during the last hours of his life, as he talks with his beloved family and friends, writes, gives a brutally honest interview, shares a meal with Ninetto Davoli, and cruises for the roughest rough trade in his gun-metal gray Alfa Romeo. Over the course of the action, Pasolini’s life and his art (represented by scenes from his films, his novel-in-progress Petrolio, and his projected film Porno-Teo-Kolossal) are constantly refracted and intermingled to the point where they become one.

Glimpses of Chaucer penning his famous work are sprinkled through this re-enactment of several of his stories.