Viacolvento

Raffaele has just assembled his little pile of grain, which serves as his provisions for an entire year. Not wishing to get caught unprepared, he has been sleeping in the countryside for days, far from everybody, waiting for the wind to arrive and help him at last to separate the wheat-grains from the chaff. But the wind will not show up. Only Angelino comes to visit him every day, making him feel less lonely. Maybe one day, when he is all grown up, Raffaele will lend him his indomitable mare and he will finally manage to ride her. But Angelino has no intention of waiting.

In an unnamed but recognizable northern Sardinia the destinies of three families intertwine, clashing and meeting, losing each other and finding each other again. Three very different families: the Arca, the Nonne and the Branca. Piero and Giuliano Arca, father and son, live alone beyond the edge of the city in a farmhouse full of injured animals that they collect and treat.

Soaked to the skin, Costantino sinks into the haystack like old timber left on the shore by a stormy sea. Torrential rain has just put out the fire that in a single night ravaged Assandira, a farmstay deep in the woods of Sardinia. But the rain hasn't quenched the pain, the endless remorse for the son lost to the flames, the son he was unable to save. The first to arrive are the carabinieri and the young investigating magistrate: Costantino tries to tell them what happened the previous night, to explain how it all began.

Sardinia, the 1970s: Giaime was given custody of some turtledoves. His dog Miggia slipped into the cellar and knocked over the birds' cage. Now Giaime doesn't know how to tell Tommaso, who caught them, that the turtledoves have flown away.