At dusk, a fourteen-year-old boy carries food into his family’s cowshed for the last time. His life in the mountains is about to come to an end: he is enrolling in catering school to learn the trade as quickly as possible. The school is renowned for its strict teaching methods: students learn that the customer is the fundamental purpose of their work and the source of their fortune. The lessons on cooking, dining room etiquette, law and religion, repeated day after day, make them endlessly confront their weaknesses, insecurities and skills. At the end of the year, young Luca, immaculate in his black uniform with shiny shoes and spotless shirt, will walk into the great hall and face the first test of his new career as a waiter and future maître d’hôtel.