In an atmosphere between fiction and reality, a rugby game in the suburbs becomes the allegory of the daily struggle of an Italian family against the trials and tribulations of life.

Robert and Gordon, two talented teenage footballers from Wick, are invited to Glasgow for a week's trial with a big club. It is their first taste of professional football, but both the game and the city upset their expectations.

Radio host Alan 'Dickie' Bird witnesses how an icecream van is attacked and destroyed by angry competitors. This leads him into the struggle between two Italian families over the icecream market of Glasgow.