The movie tells a story of the first half of the seventeenth century. Galileo is intent at his favourite studies while in his house a servant tries to seduce his daughter. When he's repulsed, the servant denounced his master to the Holy Office. Galileo's home was searched and all his writings taken off. His daughter is arrested and shut in a nunnery. The Inquisition court finds his writings contrary to the catholic religion: the court orders to burn everything and forces the scientist to repudiate his theory. In the last image of the movie Galileo, totally blind, is dying in his daughter's arms, surrounded by his closest friends, the few ones Inquisition permitted to go there to hug Galileo for the last time.