Looking for Paradise chronicles the many lively phases in the life of Claudia Bertelli, who lived between 1949 and 2011. Born to former radicals turned conservative middle-class Milanese, Claudia realizes that her parents can never consciously decide whether they find her behavior shocking or tolerable. During the 1960s, Claudia gets involved with protesting and falls in love for the first time with an idealistic, angry reactionary who subsequently disappears "underground" for many years. By the time he finally emerges he has become a corrupt devotee of the Socialist Party leader Bettino Craxi. By the 1970s, Claudia's protests have taken a feminist bent. She shocks her parents when she gives birth to a black baby from an unknown father and then later marries a Jewish philosopher. It doesn't last, but Claudia continues to be socially conscious for the rest of her life.