The film tackles the life journey of Toni Ligabue, visionary naïf painter who used to draw tigers, lions and jaguars while living among the poplar trees of the boundless Po valley. A harsh life that is a fairy tale too, as a lonely and marginalized kid finds redemption in his art, and a way to express himself and be admired by the world.

1912. Giovanni Pascoli has died, and a train leaves from Bologna for his funeral. On board, students, officials, and family, including his sister Maria, called Mariù. It is a journey of national mourning, with people from all social classes paying homage to the poet. In Mariù’s recollections, we learn how Giovanni lived: his father’s assassination, his poverty as a youth, his political activism and fraught ties to Giosuè Carducci.

Orlando is in his 40s and is "loser" until the 2012 earthquake makes him change his life.