Alessandro, a small, beautiful-bodied, fourteen-year-old boy with a heavenly soprano singing voice, feels he lacks life and feeling in a Tuscan village from his widowed father, absent on weekends and drunk most of the time, and the strict, nonpersonal control by choir masters. His response on Saturdays is to seek the attention of men. From the village baker, to the region's aristocratic count, to a hunky young farmer, Alessandro manages to find the attention he thinks he needs.
In an instant, the mother's eyes widened, her mind went blank, and her face was ashen. When the boy's face came into her eyes, and when she realized that the man having sex with her was her son, the mother felt as if the sky had fallen. The bottom line of society, the bottom line of ethics, and the bottom line of being a mother were trampled on at this moment.