Roberta arrives in Venice to take up a music teaching post. While out shopping, she meets Lorenzo who, is an artist with very much a hands-on approach to his subject. He inveigles himself into her life and soon is leading her into the seedier sides of Venice and his own philandering existence. He encourages her to try different things such as an orgy in a night club and to dress up as gay men in order to goad a couple of gondoliers into a fight. She gets to see him at work and realizes what is happening but it is she who must choose whether to go with the flow or break away.