The film follows the “journey” of a police inspector and an orphan girl (Domenica) through the streets of Naples in the course of a single day.
The Inspector, on his last day on the job, must accompany the girl – who was the victim of a brutal attack roughly a year earlier – to identify the body of the man thought to have raped her.
The story unfolds in the narrow streets and alleyways, in a confused mix of minor, touching sordid and moving events.
The child leads the gruff, uncommunicative Inspector on a pilgrimage through a poor, secret, innocent and ill-fated Naples: a “childlike” city which, in much the same way as Domenica, seems to embody the will to go on living despite all the hurt, the ability to create a dream day after day, in order to feel less alone and cursed by fate.
It is the dramatic and moving story of two lonely people: the daughter the Inspector never had, and the father Domenica has lost.
A strong emotional tie arises between the two, as their encounter provides both with a chance to pronounce a last-ditch “yes” to life.