Fatima is 16 years old and wears a veil. Her culture requires it, and her mother Amina imposes it on her. Born in Calabria to Muslim parents, the girl experiences all the conflicts and emotions typical of her age, but feels she is not like her peers: she is closed in her solitude, constantly out of place. Until one day the physical education teacher, Michele Scimone, suggests his students to sign up for the Sant'Antonio Marathon. For Fatima it is the first real opportunity to be seized. But for the teacher, a shy and depressed former runner, tormented by an unresolved past and a failed relationship with Anna, the veil that Fatima wears is a cause of prejudice.
Early one morning, in an unspecified and seemingly far off time, a 12 year old boy, together with some friends, is searching a thick forest for objects of value. There is a lot of fog. The boy goes off by himself to another part of the wood and stands admiring an antique object he has found at the foot of a tree. His happy expression turns to one of curiosity as he is distracted by some high pitched cries which come and go intermittently.
The eponymous protagonist of the film is a former assassin. She is a xenophobic and violent person, her life has always been filled with hate towards those who don’t share the same physical or cultural features; chiefly immigrants and muslims. Her job during the summer is to guard the beach and pick up the corpses of illegal immigrants who have drowned off-shore in their desperate attempt to reach the coast earning petty cash for each body. It’s a lucrative business so she has to face the competition of many illegal corpse-collectors. Nahiri, a Tunisian man, is one of them. He works with a group of illegal immigrants, who snatches the corpses from Caina and sells them in the black market. In order to increase their profit, it is not rare that they drown those who survived but are too weak to fight for their lives. It’s a ruthless business in which, sometimes, the opposites attract.