Giovanni, a laborer in a large industrial firm, accepts a transfer to Sicily with the hope of gaining a better position. He leaves his fiance, Liliana. Their relationship had become somewhat routine, and their separation seems definitive. However, their passion is not so easily lost. This highly-praised love story prompted Stanley Kauffman to remark that “Olmi moves through film like a bird through the air.” One critic called The Fiances “the most accurate and the best film about the working class yet made.”