An eighteen-year-old boy is released from an institute for minors with no family support, and for the first time tastes the bittersweet flavor of freedom; an imprisoned mother longs to go back and start all over again. These are the characters taken from the real world and transferred into a film that is first of all a shadowing of human beings, of their hopes and little acts of cowardice. But it is also the story of a time of waiting, of a soul going around in circles, a coming of age in a desolate and oppressive, marginal context that becomes a character in its own right.

Manuel

Gioia, 18 years old, lives with her widowed father on their farm in the middle mountains. When she is not looking after the sheep, she is helping the villagers by delivering the farm's products, distributing water from the so-called "miraculous" fountain and helping the elderly. Everything would be fine if her father, Bruno, who loves her very much, did not play games of chance. Burdened with debts, he must gradually strip himself of his possessions. Gioia tries to help him, but the addiction is too strong. With time she manages to convince him to join a rehabilitation center for inveterate gamblers. But to do so, he has to go to the big city. Gioa goes with him, settles down in a hotel, takes a job as a pizza delivery girl and supports Bruno in his difficult fight.