Francesco is an introverted guy, born in a small village surrounded by nature in the mountains of Calabria. He grows up with Mimmo, his best friend, with whom he shares everything until adolescence. One day he finds a book, which becomes almost a magical object that will change the course of his life. Francesco has a dream and he will find the courage to pursue it against everything and everyone: not only the society around him, that makes him feel trapped in a labyrinth of unwritten psychological and social rules, but also against Mimmo.
It is the end of World War I and the young Italian soldiers are making their way back to San Giovanni Rotondo, a land of poverty, with a tradition of violence and submission to the iron-clad rule of the church and its wealthy landowners. Families are desperate, the men are broken, albeit victorious. Padre Pio also arrives, at a remote Capuchin monastery, to begin his ministry, evoking an aura of charisma, saintliness and epic visions of Jesus, Mary and the Devil himself. The eve of the first free elections in Italy sets the stage for a massacre with a metaphorical dimension: an apocalyptic event that changes the course of history.
Tommaso is an American expat film director living in Rome with his young wife and their daughter. Disoriented by his past misgivings and subsequent unexpected blows to his self-esteem, Tommaso wades through this late chapter of his life with an increasingly impaired grasp on reality as he prepares for his next film.