Two Sicilian friends, Nunzio and Pino, share the same apartment in Turin. Nunzio works in a factory but is laid off because of his illness. Pino, on the other hand, is a mysterious man and he is always traveling because of his work. Nunzio would very much like to know what his friend is doing for a living but Pino will not tell him. Nunzio spends his free time the best he can in his friend's absences. He ends up falling in love with Maria, a commercial employee, whereas his health condition deteriorates...

On October 9th, 1963, at 10:39 pm, 260 million cubic meters of rock fell down from Mount Toc to the artificial lake formed by the Vajont dam, the higher dam in the world. The landslide formed a 250-meters wave and 50 million cubic meters of water completely destroied all the below towns, killing more than 2000 people. Planned by engineer Semenza, Vajont dam (263 meters) had to carry the electricity in all the houses of the country. Tina Merlin, a journalist from 'L'Unitá', tried for years to denounce the danger to build a dam near the Mount Toc and expecially to denounce all the omissions by the corrupted politicians and workers in charge of the dam construction. They preferred to trust in old geologist Dal Piaz instead to hear engineer Semenza young son's alarming analysis. No one seemed to understand the high danger until that October fatal night.