Everything that lives is continually developing, and occasionally as they get older, they grow apart. This is according to the laws of nature. We as emotional beings want to halt that progress since we frequently fear separation or change. But change, like a seed in nature, seeks out even the smallest openings to grow through and rips everything and anything in its path apart. This specific seed of doubt is shown in the married life of Carlo Pentecoste and Margherita Margh Verna in the Netflix Italian series Devotion, a Story of Love and Desire, or Fidelity. They try to protect their marriage, but the crack soon grows wider and wider, obliterating all the feelings they once shared.
A Story of Love and Desire Called Devotion Six episodes totaling around 40 minutes each make up Season 1, which follows the steadily disintegrating marriage of Margh and Carlo, who become embroiled in adultery because they are dissatisfied in their union. As a result, the main theme of the Italian series is infidelity, which aims to make the idea that all married couples cheat on one other at some point for a variety of reasons.
However, in Margh and Carlo’s lives, the decline starts with a doubt that soon prompts them to recognise the lack of passion that has crept into their union and is gradually contaminating it from within. This cause-and-effect is also slowly rotting them as individuals, which results in the death of their passion and dreams. The pair decides to split ways in order to save one another, but no matter how far they travel or how many people they encounter, the ethereal connections and memories that bind them together never fail to serve as a continual reminder of the love they once shared. What is going to happen to Carlo and Margh? Are they going to meet up? Or is there still any possibility? Let’s investigate.
Devotion, a Story of Love and Desire Plot Summary
Carlo Pentecoste (Michele Riondino) is a writer who has struggled to create a second book while serving as a lecturer for a writing programme at UCM. He has released one book in the past four years (University for the Creative Arts in Milan). Margherita Margh Verna (Lucrezia Guidone), an architect who aspires to become an interior designer but must support her husband by working as a real estate agent, and Carlo reside in a one-bedroom apartment that Carlo can only afford with his meagre wage.
As Margh gives a couple (client) a tour of a luxurious Concordia property that is well situated away from the city’s big towers, Devotion, a Story of Love and Desire begins. Carlo first appears at Concordia during the tour while posing as one of Margh’s clients, cementing the couple’s intense and close bond.
Later, when celebrating Carlo’s mother’s birthday, his physician father makes fun of his creative son and urges him to rent a good apartment so that they will at least have a permanent place to live. Margh and Carlo consider buying Concordia even though they couldn’t afford it since they think it will encourage Carlo to finish his book quickly. Margh deceitfully takes the selling sign down from the front of the house because she thinks their dream life is about to start when catastrophe strikes.
Sofia Casadei, a student of Carlo’s in his writing programme, is from Rimini and has moved to Milan to pursue a career as a writer. Sofia struggles with a childhood trauma that she experienced when her mother died in an accident (which she later finds was a suicide). As a result, she frequently experiences mental attacks and struggles to write her thoughts clearly. When Carlo instructs his students to write their autobiographies as part of an exercise, Sofia begins to choke and flees to the women’s restroom. Carlo pursues her out of worry. Sophia unexpectedly clutches Carlo as he tries to console her in the women’s restroom, and a girl entering the room witnesses their private moment.
Soon after the incident, the principal challenges Carlo’s honesty and interrogates him; nevertheless, when Sofia clarifies the situation, the principal leaves the problem unresolved. Margh is casually brought up the subject by Carlo. Margh becomes obsessed with the information and begins to look into Carlo, convinced that her husband is in fact having an extramarital affair with a 20-year-old student. Margh is persuaded to cheat on her husband with her physiotherapist, Andrea, when the seed of doubt causes tragic twists and turns in their marital life. The infidelity makes her more courageous to take on more obstacles in life and helps her emerge from her husband’s shadow, which ultimately encourages her to give up on her personal and professional life and start over.
The Acts of Infidelity
Margh’s excursions to the hotel with Andrea increased in frequency as the danger of deceiving her husband and having an extramarital affair brought Margh’s life a long-lost passion. Carlo, on the other hand, began to feel jealous when Sofia began dating another student from the class despite his claims that Sofia was only a student and that nothing was going on between them. Carlo found it difficult to focus on his writing and instead spent time online following Sofia while his wife was secretly having an affair with another man.
At this time, the issue was, “How long will this adultery continue, and what will be the outcome?” Margh, who didn’t want to prolong the passionless, pointless, and dead relationship any longer, was the one who made the first daring move and left Carlo’s life. Two compelling reasons led her to take action, one of which was the realisation that she had discovered postcards that her father had sent to a woman who proved that he was having an affair with Margh’s mother, Loretta. Margh felt claustrophobic while keeping her secret life from Carlo, which was the second reason. Margh was prepared to accept the new chapters of her life rather than flipping back and forth between the past ones once Andrea rekindled the lost fire within of her.
Margh was with Andrea the night of the symposium when Carlo was detained for trespassing in a park. Carlo contacted Margh while dressed for a party, asked her quietly where she was, and begged her to bring his ID and bail him out of the station. Margh initially resisted the question, but as her feelings began to rise, she realised it was time to walk away from the failing marriage that would eventually drown them both and burn the bridge of lies. That evening, Margh and Carlo parted ways. While Margh knew exactly where she was going, Carlo faced a foggy path ahead.
Carlo lost his job as a result of Sofia’s boyfriend’s jealous reporting to the principal of what he saw Sofia and Carlo doing when secretly entering the park. Having lost his career and his wife, Carlo made the decision to follow his passion and expose the lies he had been telling himself and everyone around him. Even this seemed like an act of infidelity because Carlo probably didn’t love Sofia or want to spend the rest of his life with her. He went to Rimini to meet Sofia and told her how he felt about her (kind of thing). The contact with Sofia was a test of Carlo’s allegiance as well, a test at which he utterly failed, but it at least caused him to acknowledge that he was unhappily married.
Devotion, a Story of Love and Desire Ending Explained
Every addiction is followed by withdrawal, and at this time, there are high chances of relapse. Margh did this when she cleaned Carlo’s apartment and then decided to text him to let him know she was missing him. However, she requested Carlo to meet him in the same place where they had first met. Carlo was in Rimini with Sofia when he received the text; Sofia had encouraged Carlo to look for the resolution of his book—or, more specifically, his marriage—while they were there.
Carlo left Milan and returned to find Margh kissing Andrea, who had come to pick Margh up. Margh told Andrea just before this scenario that she wished to put an end to this covert relationship before it became a duty, died slowly, or became a nightmare. Margh could have wished to stop cheating on her husband in order to save their marriage and start over with fresh energy, but Carlo didn’t show up for the meeting. Because there was no longer a single man or woman in this novel, Carlo went home in a wrath and erased his partially completed book, One Man, One Woman.
After the couple ultimately divorced, Carlo accepted a desk job working for his editor, Luca, and began seeking out fresh, bright authors who would be prepared to publish their works. Even more, Carlo suggested Sofia read The Way Things Are. Carlo’s talent-spotting abilities impressed Luca, who gave him a job in Paris to locate other unique talents in France. Because Carlo was still plagued by thoughts of Margh and was unable to let them go, his personal life had completely collapsed, and Luca wanted him to get out of his shell and start over.
However, after parting ways with Andrea, Margh began dating a painter by the name of Marcello and even realised her dream of starting her own studio, Studio Verna, close to Concordia. During Margh’s mother’s surgery, the ex-lovers ran into one other once more and discovered that even though they weren’t speaking to one another, they both knew everything about the other. The couple’s future was uncertain until the very end of the series, despite the wishes of all of Margh and Carlo’s shared friends and family members for them to reunite.
Margh quietly attended Sophia’s book launch before vanishing. Following the incident, Carlo informed Sophia that he would be departing for Paris, implying that he would be abandoning Margh and Sophia to start again. During the ending sequence of Devotion, a Story of Love and Desire, Carlo appeared outside Studio Verna and called out to Margh, where the couple looked at sold Concordia and reminisced about how it all began with the house and would most likely end with it. Margh was informed by Carlo that it was only after he had lost her that he had come to see how important she was, and the hole she had left had motivated him to improve himself, leading him to express his thanks for her.
Margh gave Carlo a kiss before departing, to which Carlo replied, “What now?” Let’s see what you come up with, Margh responds, exactly like she did when she first met Carlo six years ago while visiting him in the hospital. Their relationship quickly developed after that. Because of this, it’s possible that the couple’s intense feelings for one another will drive them to turn the wheel again and make an effort to find each other. This will likely give them a chance to start over and bring intimacy into their relationship, which was previously boring and monotonous due to a lack of it. The real question is whether Carlo will actually travel to Paris, especially given that he is aware of his remaining opportunity to return to Margh. Only Devotion: A Story of Love and Desire’s second season will be able to do it justice.
Devotion, a Story of Love and Desire is a 2022 Italian Romance Drama series directed by Stefano Cipani and Andrea Molaioli. The novel by Mario Missiroli served as its inspiration. Netflix is presently offering Season 1 for streaming.
