"L'edera" is both the story of the decline of a Sardinian family and the description of a woman's sacrifice.
Annesa is a from a declining aristocratic family and very much devoted to her family, the Decherchi, which is at the edge of financial collapse. The fate of the family depends on the success of their efforts to inherit the estate of a distant uncle who, is hosted by the Decherchis, because of his ill health and is now on the verge of dying. Annesa, exacerbated by the refusal of the uncle to help financially Annesa's financially strapped nephew Don Paulu Decherchi (played by Roldano Lupi), that she is secretly in love with, murders the uncle. Despite the suspicions and investigations by the police, the murder is not discovered. But Annesa, overcome by remorse, confesses her deed to a priest.