The film is set during the late 1930s: the occasion is the first meeting between Mussolini and Hitler. Left alone in her tenement home when her fascist husband runs off to attend the historic event, Sophia Loren strikes up a friendship with her homosexual neighbor Mastroianni. As the day segues into night, Loreon and Mastroianni develop a very special relationship that will radically alter both of their outlooks on life. Beyond the "sensational" aspect of virile Marcello Mastoianni playing a gay character, A SPECIAL DAY garnered a great deal of American attention when the stars promoted the film on the very first installment of PBS's DICK CAVETT SHOW (that's the one in which Mastroianni might have said the F-word).