Studying to become a teacher in 1950s Northern Italy, Sicilian immigrant Pietro is joined by his big brother Giovanni. Pietro shows considerable promise in his field, prompting illiterate Giovanni to take on even the toughest jobs in order to support his sibling's academic pursuits.

The life and times of Pippo Fava, a Sicilian journalist who fought the Mafia through his local newspaper in the '70s and early '80s, meeting an untimely end.

A story of friendship in a squalid suburb of a city of southern Italy. Alexander and Ferdi come from poor families and live in a city in decline, where there is no future.

St. Petersburg, 1860. After a member of the imperial family is assassinated, Fyodor Dostoevsky meets one of the conspirators, who reveals that his comrades are planning another attack to the Tsar's life. Plagued by debts and struggling to finish his latest novel, Dostoevsky must act fast to call off the plot.