Stourley Kracklite, a driven, detail-obsessed architect, travels from America to Rome with his much younger wife, Louisa, to oversee an architectural homage to a personal hero, 18th-century master builder Etienne-Louis Boullée. En route by train, Stourley and Louisa conceive a much-wanted child — but Stourley's obsession with his wife's expanding belly, her perceived infidelity, and his own recurrent bouts of abdominal pain reach epic and dangerous proportions.

Brian Dennehy
as Stourley Kracklite

Chloe Webb
as Louisa Kracklite

Lambert Wilson
as Caspasian Speckler

Sergio Fantoni
as Io Speckler

Stefania Casini
as Flavia Speckler

Vanni Corbellini
as Frederico

Alfredo Varelli
as Julio

Geoffrey Copleston
as Caspetti

Francesco Carnelutti
as Pastarri

Marino Masé
as Trettorio