A Life tells the story of a bank clerk with a poetic spirit. The youthful Alfonso persists in maintaining his artistic and intellectual sensibilities, undaunted by either the stifling conditions of his employment or the increasing entanglements of his domestic circumstances. Yet he seems to be falling in love with Annetta, the vain and arrogant daughter of the bank boss. When, miraculously, she begins to encourage his advances, it exposes the vanity of his infatuation and threatens the precarious balance of the life he has struggled to create for himself.