A suburban high school, structures, students and teaching staff are the exemplary mirror of a social and economic depression that seems irreversible. To worsen the situation, a few meters from the school, between the houses of the neighborhood, the "Zoo", a center of assistance to migrants became over the years a permanent refugee camp. A professor is called to hold a remedial course for six students suspended for disciplinary reasons. But when the clashes between the population and migrants break out, the situation quickly gets out of hand.

In a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Taranto, high upon the rooftops framed by the Ilva steel factory, we meet Tonino a.k.a. “Barboncino” (poodle). Tonino has just committed a robbery and, in a moment of foolishness, fled from his accomplices, taking the entire loot for himself. He escapes upward, clambering from roof to roof, until he can go no further and must take refuge in an old water tank. Here he finds Renato, a strange and eccentric man who believes he is an American Indian from the Sioux tribe. Trapped with no other choice, Tonino is forced to team up with Renato. A strange and crazy friendship is formed, and Tonino learns to see things from a very different perspective.