Vittorio Zemeli is a man of about 60. He lives in an apartment in a grey building in a grey city center in Europe, crossed by a river. At the center of his house he leads a solitary life, with TV on continuously for company. One evening, like many other evenings, Vittorio sees an actor on TV identical to himself, while eating. The TV Victor kills himself. The next day Vittorio is anxious while on the way to work. Three friends surprise him and drag him into a popular restaurant in town for a birthday dinner. But the journey on the way back home will be one he won't forget.

Christmas 1951. In the vast halls of Palazzo Filomarino, in the heart of Naples, the elderly Benedetto Croce is surrounded for the last time by his loved ones, his wife, daughters, and grandchildren. Among them is the youngest, Benedetta Craveri, now a famous writer, who takes us into the life of her grandfather: a philosopher, historian, and literary critic who dominated a century of Italian life with a culture as vast as the library in his home.