The troubled relationship between Gianni and Nino, set in the narrow-minded and prejudicial Sicily of 1982.

An American couple, Paul and Marianne, spend their vacation in Italy and experience trouble when Marianne invites a former lover and his teenage daughter to visit, which leads to jealousy and dangerous sexual scenarios.

In 1917, Gino Montanari, an elementary school teacher from Romagna, was forced by the principal of his school to volunteer for the First World War because of his libertine and anti-interventionist behavior. With the threat of being expelled from all schools if he refused, Gino was reluctantly sent to the front in a small outpost in Valtellina, where as a heliographer he had to transmit Morse signals with sunlight. His life would be profoundly changed by his encounter with a young illiterate man, with the enemy, and with a series of individuals from various parts of Italy.

A story of the Mexican-American War and issues of racism and xenophobia that resonate today.