Filmul prezintă povestea unui scriitor aflat în pragul bătrâneții, Jep Gambardella, care rememorează tinerețea lui plină cândva de pasiuni, atunci când privește orașul Roma ca un melanj de figuri politice, artiști, femei din înalta societate, intelectuali, chiar și delincvenți.

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Journalist Jep Gambardella has charmed and seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades. Since the legendary success of his one and only novel, he has been a permanent fixture in the city's literary and social circles, but when his sixty-fifth birthday coincides with a shock from the past, Jep finds himself unexpectedly taking stock of his life, turning his cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries, and looking past the extravagant nightclubs, parties, and cafés to find Rome in all its glory: a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.