A girl from Calabria tells her friend of her recent trip to far-away Gorizia, on the trail of a certain Carlo Michelstaedter, a poet and philosopher who died very young in 1910 and now acknowleged as a universal genius. She was immediately struck by his character, for his longing for a life without compromises.
The girl tries to discover the reason for his tragic ending. At the end of the story the protagonist sees a boy on the beach that reminds her of something: the mystery is about to be revealed.