1962, Pietro a young boy of 9, is entrusted by his dead mother's sister, to Benito a Neapolitan rag-trader who - supposedly - should take him to Germany to find his estranged father emigrated years back. After a long and difficult journey fraught with unpleasant events, they end up mingling into the community of factory workers whose daily hard life young Pietro is forced to share, but where - underneath the roughness - he finds warmth and affection.