The film finds army officer Andrea dealing with a particularly strange case of impotence: his libido only gets aroused in the middle of near-death experiences. So while candle-lit dinners leave him cold, a female lion tamer or a General's wife expand his lust to dangerous proportions. After a visit to a psychoanalyst, he fears his vice will lead to an early grave, so he attempts to live as a celibate with the virginal beauty Gigliola, but he is only delaying his inevitable descent back into sin