Italy of the thirties of our century, the working outskirts of Turin. In these dull scenery unfolds the sad story of the first love of a young girl Ginia to the artist Guido.

Ginia works in an atelier and leads a company with factory workers and local guys. One day she met Amelia. About Amelia it is known that "she leads a different life." Amelia is a model, she is painted by artists - “full face, profile, dressed, undressed”. She likes this work, artists often gather a lot of people in the workshops, you can sit and listen to smart conversations - “cleaner than in the movies”. Only in winter to pose naked is cold.

Once Amelia is invited to pose by a fat artist with a gray beard, and Ginia begs to go to him with her friend. The bearded man finds that Ginia has an interesting face, and makes several sketches with her. But the girl does not like her images - she turned out to be some kind of sleepy. In the evening, recalling “the swarthy belly of Amelia,” “her indifferent face and drooping breasts,” she still cannot understand why artists paint naked women. It is much more interesting to draw dressed! No, if they want to be posed naked, it means "they have something else on their mind."

Borodach’s work is over, and Amelia sits in a cafe for days on end. There she makes a close acquaintance with Rodriguez - a hairy young man in a white tie, with coal-black eyes, who constantly draws something in his notebook. One evening, she offers Ginia to go to him, or rather, to the artist Guido, who is renting an apartment in shares with Rodriguez. She has known Guido for a long time, and when Ginia asks what they did with him, her friend replies with a laugh that they "broke glasses."

The laughing blonde Guido, illuminated by a blinding light bulb without a lampshade, does not at all look like an artist, although he has already painted many paintings, all the walls in the studio are hung with his work. Young people treat the girls with wine, then Amelia asks to turn off the light, and the amazed and frightened Ginia watches the lights of cigarettes flicker in the dark. From the corner where Amelia and Rodriguez are sitting, a quiet bickering is heard. “I feel like I'm in a movie,” Ginia says. “But you don’t have to pay for the ticket here,” comes Rodriguez's mocking voice.

Ginia liked Guido and his paintings, she wants to look at them again. “If she was sure that she would not find Rodriguez in the studio, she would probably have the courage to go there alone.” Finally, she agrees to go to the studio with Amelia. But Ginia will be disappointed - only Rodriguez is at home. Then Ginia chooses the day when Rodriguez sits in a cafe, and one goes to Guido. The artist invites her to sit down, but he continues to work. Ginia examines a still life with "transparent and watery" slices of melon, which are incident on a ray of light. She feels that only a true artist can draw like that; “I like you, Ginia,” she suddenly hears. Guido tries to hug her, but she, red as a cancer, breaks out and runs away.

The more Ginia thinks of Guido, the less she understands “why Amelia messed up with Rodriguez and not with him.” Meanwhile, Amelia offers Ginia to pose with her to one artist who wants to portray the struggle of two naked women. Ginia flatly refuses, and her friend, angry, coldly says goodbye to her. Wandering alone through the streets, Ginia dreams of meeting Guido. She is just sick with this blonde artist and studio. A phone rings suddenly: Amelia invites her to a party. Arriving at the studio, Ginia enviously listens to the chatter of Guido and Amelia. She understands that artists do not lead such a life as others, they do not need to "seriously". Rodriguez - he doesn’t paint pictures, so he is silent, and if he speaks, he basically mocks me. But the main thing is that she feels an irresistible desire to be alone with Guido. And so, when Amelia and Rodriguez settle in the ottoman, she throws back the curtain, hiding the entrance to another room, and, plunging into the darkness, throws herself on the bed.

The next day, she thinks of only one thing: "from now on, she must see Guido without these two." And she wants to joke, laugh, go where her eyes look - she is happy. “I must really love him,” she thinks, “I wouldn't be good.” Work becomes her joy: in the evening she will go to the studio. She even feels sorry for Amelia, who does not understand how good Guido's paintings are.

Entering the studio, Ginia hides her face on Guido’s chest and cries with joy, and then asks them to leave behind the curtains, “because in the light it seemed to her that everyone was looking at them.” Guido kisses her, and she confusedly whispers to him that yesterday he hurt her very much. In response, Guido reassures her, says that all this will pass. Making sure how good he is, Ginia dares to tell him that she wants to always see him alone, even for a few minutes. And he adds that she would even agree to pose for him. She leaves the studio only when Rodriguez returns.

Every day, Ginia resorts to Guido, but they never have time to talk in detail, since Rodriguez can come at any moment. “I would have to fall in love with you in order to grow wiser, but then I would lose time,” Guido once remarks. But Ginia already knows that he will never marry her, no matter how much she loves him. “She knew this from the very evening when she surrendered to him. Thank you also for the fact that while she was coming, Guido stopped working and went with her for the curtain. She understood that she could only meet with him if she became his model. Otherwise, one fine day he will take another. ”

Guido leaves for his parents. Amelia gets sick with syphilis, and Ginia warns Rodriguez about it. Guido soon returns, and their dates resume. Several times girls slip out of the studio towards Ginia, but Guido says that they are models. And then Ginia finds out that, despite her illness, Guido takes Amelia as a model. Ginia is at a loss: what about Rodriguez? To which Guido annoyingly replies that she herself can pose for Rodriguez.

The next day, Ginia arrives at the studio in the morning. Guido stands behind an easel and draws naked Amelia. “Which of us are you jealous of?” - the artist sarcastically asks Ginia.

The session is over, Amelia dresses. “Draw me too,” Ginia suddenly asks, and begins to undress with a furious pounding heart. When she is completely undressed, Rodriguez comes out from behind the curtain. Somehow pulling on her clothes, Ginia runs out into the street: it seems to her that she is still naked.

Now Ginia has a lot of time, and since she has already learned to cope with homework in haste, this makes her “only worse” because she has a lot of time to think. She starts to smoke. Often she recalls bitterly that she and Guido "did not even say goodbye."

It's a slushy winter outside, and Ginia longs for summer. Although in her soul she does not believe that it will ever come. “I am an old woman, that’s what. Everything ended well for me, ”she thinks.

But one evening Amelia comes to her - the former, which has not changed at all. She is being treated and will soon be completely healthy, says Amelia, lighting a cigarette. Ginia also takes a cigarette. Amelia laughs and says that Ginia impressed Rodriguez. Now Guido is jealous of him. Then she offers Ginia a walk. “Let's go wherever you want,” Ginia answers, “lead me.”