A sheltered sixteen-year-old Jewish boy from a prosperous family in Ferrara reflects on a critical period of his schooldays in 1929-1930. He makes friends with the leader of the class, a boy with the right looks and the right religion, and with a new boy who joins the class - another "outsider." While the young Jew is shy and naive, the newcomer is aggressive, cynical, sexually uninhibited.

With his characteristic perceptiveness, Bassani subtly explores the relations of the three boys, as events lead to a shattering betrayal of trust.