The film recounts a year in the life of an elderly family in a small settlement in the shadow of Monte Somma. The four core members (three siblings, Carmela, Concetta, Francesco and his wife Graziella) support themselves from the produce of the farmland beside the house. Carmela, the eldest of them and in poor health, is looked after by Graziella and Concetta as a mother would tend to her new-born child. Francesco spends most of his time in the fields looking after the crops. As a good head of the household, he feels the weight of responsibility and cannot tolerate things going wrong. The daily life of this family unfolds through situations that are repeated every day, like rituals. Two events, however, shatter the tranquillity of their lives: the trees in the hazelnut groves, the main source of the family income, are slow to germinate, thus putting Francesco in a state of crisis; and Carmela’s condition suddenly deteriorates, without any apparent remedy.