Marcello is a young playboy journalist who spends his days between celebrities and rich people, seeking for ephemeral joy in parties and sex. When a famous film star comes to Rome, he does everything he can to meet her, and when he does, he is totally charmed by her. Marcello is a society gossip columnist. During one of his rounds, he meets again Maddalena and spends the night with her in a whore's bedroom. When he comes back home the next morning, he discovers that his girlfriend Emma poisoned herself because of him. Later, he is at the airport where the famous star Sylvia is arriving : he will go with her a few days... A chronicle of a decadent society where there is no more values except alcohol and sex, and no solutions but suicide.