Caterino is a worker at the Ilva factory in Taranto. When the company executives decide to use him as a spy to identify the workers they should get rid of, Caterino starts to track his colleagues, in search of reasons to report them. He then asks to be assigned himself to the Palazzino LAF where as punishment, some employees sit out their time with no job assignment. There he discovers that what looks like paradise is actually a strategy to psychologically break troublesome workers.

Giancarlo Mangiapane is thirty years old and has one single dream: to become a great actor. However, the important roles aren't coming, so Giancarlo ends up acting in his everyday life. One day, his agent tells him he's about to get the opportunity of a lifetime: the lead audition for Clochard, a biopic about the life of Gustavo Noradin, a 1950s tap dance champion who fell from grace due to his addictions. When he discovers that his roommate is also preparing for the same role, a rivalry is born that begins to obsess him. Between exhausting rehearsals, a mother who keeps trying to reach him, and a fearsome casting director, Giancarlo's identification with the character becomes total, to the point of jeopardizing his true identity.