An aging actress' husband dies of a heart attack en route to Rome, where they'd planned to holiday. There, she rents an apartment and, through the Contessa, she meets a young man, with whom she begins an affair.
The only son of wealthy widow Violet Venable dies while on vacation with his cousin Catherine. What the girl saw was so horrible that she went insane; now Mrs. Venable wants Catherine lobotomized to cover up the truth.
