Bernard, a writer in a personal and creative crisis, decides to a short break in a hotel where he had stayed the previous year. The proprietors, old Enrico and his daughter Irma, hide a surly attitude, and the villagers seem to be oppressed by an unspeakable mystery. Bernard is looking for Tilde, a beautiful chambermaid whom he secretly fell in love with, but is shocked to find out that the girl killed herself. However, a hunchbacked photographer suggests she was murdered by Enrico, her lover, because she was pregnant and did not want to abort. Meanwhile, Mario, Enrico's unfriendly son, returns from honeymoon with his seemingly unhappy wife Adriana. The woman, who is kept like a prisoner in her room, tries to contact Bernard, but is soon found dead too. In an increasingly uneasy atmosphere there are two more killings before the culprit is revealed...