Italy 1936: Elio (Al Cliver, ZOMBI 2) returns home from Africa planning to write his memoirs to settle his mounting debts. Little does he know that his lonely wife Alessandra (Lili Carrati, TO BE TWENTY) has been sleeping with his hired-in-advance secretary Velma (Annie Belle, LAURE). Besides the silks, African masks, and sculptures, Elio has also brought Abyssinian princess turned sex slave Zerbal (Laura Gemser, BLACK EMMANUELLE) home with him. Alessandra and Velma take an instant disliking to her and constantly degrade her and underestimate her intelligence (her initial greeting to Alessandra of "Go and get yourself fucked" is taken by Elio as a misuse of a phrase he taught her to fend herself against unwanted attention from other men). When Elio turns over Zerbal's ownership to Alessandra and jealous Velma's time is taken up typing Elio's unsuccessful memoirs, Zerbal becomes Alessandra's model and exercises her influence over Alessandra and a subsequently sexually-frustrated Elio (who Alessandra locks out of her bedroom so she can spend time with Zerbal). Elio returns the belongings of a fallen comrade to his widow only to discover that the man was a stag filmmaker and his wife was an actress. With his manuscript going nowhere, Elio buys some filming equipment and decides he can make money if he produces some stag films himself with Alessandra, Zerbal, and Velma as actresses. Zerbal convinces Elio to use the true story of how he acquired her as the film scenario which she uses as the start of her revenge.

Although regarded as one of Joe D'Amato's best works of erotica (specifically in the eighties Filmirage period), THE ALCOVE is a bit of a frustrating view. The period detail is well-handled, the cast is attractive, and Gemser is an effective presence as usual but the first two thirds of the script lean towards Zerbal giving these decadent, racist, and hypocritical people (Alessandra only questions how history is shaped by the victors and neglects the perspective of the vanquished after she has had her way with Zerbal) what they deserve to Velma appealing to Elio's gallant son Furio (Roberto Caruso, THE CHURCH) to save his father and stepmother from Zerbal's evil influence without a hint of irony. Even so, THE ALCOVE is one of the better Filmirage entries from a time when Joe D'Amato's erotica which emcompassed such dire modern day set films like TOP MODEL and ELEVEN DAYS, ELEVEN NIGHTS and other okay period entries like the Venice-set THE PLEASURE, the BELLE DU JOUR copy PEEPSHOW, and the New Orleans-set HENRY & JUNE ripoff ROOM OF WORDS amidst Filmirage's other variable horror and sci-fi product.