Two Sicilian friends, Nunzio and Pino, share the same apartment in Turin. Nunzio works in a factory but is laid off because of his illness. Pino, on the other hand, is a mysterious man and he is always traveling because of his work. Nunzio would very much like to know what his friend is doing for a living but Pino will not tell him. Nunzio spends his free time the best he can in his friend's absences. He ends up falling in love with Maria, a commercial employee, whereas his health condition deteriorates...

In Sicily, in a time not yet forgotten, in the heart of a small secluded town populated by cicadas, ticks and venomous snakes, that which made a man a real man was not riches or power, but his honor. He had to defend his dignity against insults and village gossip. It took little to stoke the fire once lit, and no one was immune. One of the worst humiliations a man can suffer was to have an adulterous wife. A man so disgraced would bear the mark of shame, with all eyes of the community upon him. It was said that "his horns were sticking out" for all to see.

In 1950s Sicily, con artist Joe Moretti does screen tests for the big studios, accepting money or favours for his efforts. A young illiterate novitiate named Beata desperately wants to change her life and falls for him; belatedly, he realizes his feelings for her. However, their love affair is doomed when he's arrested.

In the late 1990s, in a dilapidated theater in the heart of Palermo, Carlo Cecchi is working on a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the second play in his Shakespearean trilogy, translated by the poet Patrizia Cavalli. Director Francesca Comencini – who sees Cecchi as the last representative of an Italy not subservient to the media and Berlusconi’s power – decides to follow him and is allowed to film the show’s rehearsals, on the condition that she does it all on her own and with discretion.