When his destituite widowed sister-in-law—whom he had never stopped harbouring feelings for—and her ne'er-do-well son come to live with him after World War II, a mentally-ill farmer who spends all his time destroying unexploded ordnance scattered across the countryside finds a new purpose in his lonely life.

Tiziano, a seventeen-year-old boy, fights to change his destiny, against the backdrop of a Taranto oppressed by the underworld. With a father sick of video poker and a mother busy opposing the installation of an antenna in front of an elementary school, Tiziano ends up getting into serious trouble when, in order to chase his dream of starting a different life in a distant place, with his girl, robs the safe of the local boss's villa.

Bologna, 1976. The paths of two aimless young friends intertwine with those of Radio Alice, a pirate radio politically aligned with the leftist student movement.