Lorenzo, a handsome first-year professor in an isolated Italian village, falls under the spell of his most beguiling pupil, a dark-haired, starry-eyed 12-year-old named Duilio. As Lorenzo's relationship with his heartless girlfriend deteriorates, he finds himself walking the fields with his loving student. When their idyllic friendship is questioned by Duilio's suspicious stepmother, Lorenzo is brought to a crisis of conscience.

In 1980s Italy, a relationship begins between seventeen-year-old teenage Elio and the older adult man hired as his father's research assistant.