The film takes place over the course of a single night: the longest night of the year, between December 21 and 22 (the winter solstice), when the sun sets around 4:30 p.m. and rises the next day at 7:30 a.m. A long night in which the stories, destinies, anxieties, and dramas of a provincial town in the south (Potenza) intertwine, even if only briefly. Fifteen hours of uninterrupted darkness in which human destiny becomes exceptional, as the night causes the anchors of the day to be lost and four personal stories suddenly accelerate.

When a group of African immigrants builds a cardboard village between the pews of a church soon to be closed, an elderly priest must choose between his calling and his orders.

This tense thriller begins in the office of Claudia, a psychoanalyst whose sister was killed in a terrorist attack. Her newest client is Tancredi. He says that he is a journalist and that he suffers from having witnessed numerous atrocities in Bosnia. The events he describes sound just like those of Brescia, and Claudia, who still grieves for her sister, begins to wonder if Tancredi is telling the truth. Her investigation proves that he is lying, but it leads her to wonder why he has chosen her as his psychoanalyst. After talking to her husband, Claudia visits her old mentor who suggests she continue working with Tancredi but warns her not to call in the police. After that the story frequently jumps to 1998. By then Claudia and her newborn baby have become part of the witness protection program and she is preparing to testify against those involved in covering up government-sponsored terrorist activity.

25-year-old carouser Carlo is sentenced to one year of community service after crashing his car while drunk and on cocaine. He has to serve his sentence at the Villa Bianca nursing home, along with other non-violent felons. He initially lives it as yet another nuisance, but spending time with Villa Bianca's residents — especially Dino, a cultured and sarcastic 80-year-old who has attempted suicide several times — will make Carlo change his outlook on the world and on life itself.

Annabì has a fear of flying, which holds back her life and acting career. When her daughter decides to study abroad, Annabì sets out to conquer her fear by taking a course designed specifically for those who are afraid of flying.

A single, independent woman finds herself organizing her sister's wedding with the help of her future brother-in-law.

The last days of humanity by Karl Kraus, a mammoth drama - almost 800 pages in the Adelphi edition - staged by Luca Ronconi in the Lingotto in Turin, broadcast by Rai

An Italian-American pizzeria manager returns to Sicily to assassinate a judge, enlisting his honest younger brother for help. As the brother's morals clash with the task, the only way to save him is through a sacrifice that appeases the mafia.

A doctor's life takes a mysterious turn when his ambulance plunges into a river.