Italy, 1919. Maddalena, a young convent girl, is raped by a gypsy in the woods near Florence. Soon afterwards, her father arranges for her to marry a wealthy wine merchant, Giuseppe Labardi. A year later, they have a daughter, Angela.
Maddalena leads a pious and reclusive life, but her peaceful existence is disturbed when Angela, now seventeen, returns to the Labardi home in Rome after five years spent at school in England, bringing with her Evelyn, a young English diplomat. Angela's modern tastes shock Maddalena, who starts to behave strangely.
At Angela's birthday party, Maddalena faints suddenly at the sight of Sandro Barucci, a gigolo whom Angela met in Cannes. Subsequently, Maddalena disappears, taking her jewels and leaving seven moons scrawled in lipstick on her mirror. Giuseppe reveals to Angela and a family friend, Dr Ackroyd, that his wife has disappeared twice before, taking her jewellery and remembering nothing on her return. Ackroyd diagnoses a split personality.
Angela determines to trace her mother through the jewellery, beginning her search in Florence. Evelyn, now her fiancé, has to return briefly to England, so Angela enlists the help of two artist friends, Jimmy and Nesta Logan, and also of Sandro Barucci.
Meanwhile, Maddalena has once again become Rosanna, gypsy mistress of jewel thief Nino Barucci, who lives with his mother and younger brother Sandro at the house of the Seven Moons in Florence. Rosanna, who remembers nothing of her other life, gives Nino her jewels, whereupon he discovers her connection with Labardi.
Madly jealous, believing her to be Giuseppe's mistress, he plans to raid the Labardi house in Florence under cover of the carnival and kill Giuseppe. Sandro, meanwhile, in the guise of helping Angela to find Maddalena, lures her to the Seven Moons, intending to seduce her. Dressed, like Nino, as a harlequin for the carnival, Sandro drugs Angela and carries her upstairs.
Rosanna sees them and, believing Sandro to be Nino, stabs him in a jealous rage. Dying, he throws a stiletto at Rosanna. Angela comes round and recognises Rosanna as her mother. Evelyn and Jimmy Logan arrive, having tracked Sandro down to the Seven Moons from one of Jimmy's sketches.
They take Maddalena to the Labardi house, where Nino follows them. At Maddalena's deathbed, Nino refrains from killing Giuseppe when he hears him call her his wife, placing a cross on her breast. Nino throws a rose beside it.
Monthly Film Bulletin
