After her acquittal, her advocate pays her a visit and forces her to pay for his services with sex. The betrayal hurts, but Malèna says nothing to condemn him. When she is denounced and put on trial by the wife of an elderly dentist, the officer sends testimony that he was nothing more than an occasional friend. The woman is said to have been with a lot of men she unwisely fuels these rumours by allowing Cadei, a single air force officer, to visit her after dark. One day, Malèna is notified of her husband's death, adding grief to her isolation. He also steals some of her underwear from her clothesline when his parents find it in his bedroom, they become upset and strictly punish him, trying to break his fixation. Renato becomes obsessed with Malèna, spying on her in her house, stalking her when she leaves it and thinking of her in all his erotic fantasies. She keeps an eye on her father, who the school teacher of Renato and his friends and also lives alone, until he receives an anonymous note slandering her, which causes him to reject her.

Because of her physical appearance and her solitary status, she is an object of lust for all the town's men and of hatred for its women.

Her husband Antonino 'Nino' is in the armed forces fighting the British in Africa and she lives alone. On June 10, 1940, in the fictional small Sicilian town of Castelcutò, a teenage boy named Renato Amoroso experiences three major events: the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini announces that Italy is entering World War II he receives a new bike he sees for the first time, together with his friends, the beautiful and sensual Maddalena 'Malèna' Bonsignore Scordìa, who is the most desired young woman in town.

Malena movie meaning