In the years following the second world war, a German photographer travels to Italy to capture the rural idyll of Calabria. Lonely and facing failure, he turns to a local itinerant youth, Giorgio Bellusci, whose own search for a lost lover has run into difficulties.
The photographer finds fame and glory as a result of their trip together, and the young Italian rediscovers a family obsession: renovating the Fondaco del Fico, once a renowned inn in the region.
The two men's story is told by their common grandson (their respective offspring meet and have a child), and though the constant to-ing and fro-ing between generations can get confusing, there's a poetic quality to the tale.