A young man enters a brothel and sees a staged narration of a Chinese folk tale concerning a female pirate.

World War I, Italian north-eastern front after the 1917 bloody battles on the Altipiano. A group of soldiers face the difficulty of war in a story that unfolds in the space of one night. Events follow one after the other without any kind of pattern: the peaceful mountains suddenly become a place where men die. But every story told in this film is a true story.

Giovanni and Anna are a married couple in their sixties who have lived together all their lives, with honestly and dignity. However, in the past few years the economic crisis has hit town and work, Anna has not been able to keep up her payments and she has accumulated a debt with the tax authorities. For Giovanni and Anna this marks the beginning of an inexorable ordeal which will lead them to lose first their home, then their work, and ultimately their privacy.

A racewalking athlete Maria runs a petrol station with a takeaway shop in a desolate mountain village, she is almost 30 years old, she may have little chance to fulfill her lifelong dream of success but at what cost?