THE FLOWER IN HIS MOUTH

Teacher Elena Bardi transfers herself from Sondrio in a Sicilian town, where she is harassed by a man without anyone intervening. The next morning he is found executed. Elena finds lodging with a lawyer named Bellocampo, who is an enigmatic landowner who knows all the unmentionable secrets of the city. At school Elena clashes with the difficulties of school evasion, while her non-conformism prevents her from tying up with her colleagues, except with Professor Belcore, with whom she starts a relationship, which he does not dare to make public. One day Bellocampo leads her to the poor neighborhoods of the city where school evasion originates and informs her that the degradation could be eliminated with the approval of a law firm in Parliament.

When she is the victim of a second aggression whose executioners are also found dead, Elena realizes that everyone thinks she has a mysterious power. Although concerned by this notion, she decides to use it to ask the Mayor to bestow grants to the poorest families, which he immediately obtains. The consideration towards her increases so much that now everyone sends their children to school. She also meets the powerful Senator Cataudella and asks him to unblock the law for the rehabilitation of poor neighborhoods, which happens a short time later.

Nevertheless, a journalist tells her that in reality only a portion of the law was approved to intervene in areas that involve a speculation from Bellocampo. Faced with Elena's indignation, he tells her to hate the city because they killed his brother when he was a podestà. Elena realizes that she has been used, and even Belcore ends up being so cowardly. She then decides to leave, but the morning of departure does not go on the bus that would take her away.

Elena realizes she has been used by Bellocampo and the town's power brokers, confronts the truth about the city’s corruption, and ultimately decides to leave, though she does not take the bus on the morning of her departure.

The ending underscores Elena’s disillusionment with the town and its moral compromises. Her choice not to board the bus suggests a final act of agency or unresolved business, leaving her future open but marking her refusal to be a pawn any longer. The film lands with a note of ambiguity, emphasizing the cost of challenging entrenched power and the isolating effect of non-conformity.