Impero, a private detective, is apparently imprisoned in a gray professional and sentimental routine. Rosa asks him to investigate on Davide, the twenty-year-old son of Francesco, who has been a friend since her youth.
The detective starts following the young man’s tracks, he observes his aimless life. He discovers a good kid, although full of anger, who spends all his days with very similar friends in dismissed factories and antagonist social centers.
Rosa, Francesco’s partner, has an ambiguous sentimental relationship with Davide. Francesco disappears altogether, when Impero tries to contact him by cellular phone, his calls are always lost. Rosa meets a mysterious woman to whom she is very deeply connected. The detective, who has always avoided personal involvement in his work, almost decides to leave the investigation.
But one night, while he is following Davide, he sees him and his friends attacking a biotech lab. Davide wounds a private warden. Impero, who has always remained hidden, decides to come in the open and saves the young man.
The detective contacts a friend from Naples, who promises to hide them for a while. During their journey chance and destiny get them to Florence, where they meet a group of gypsies and assist at a Sufi ritual, then to Rome where Davide wants to find his mother Michelle, whom he has not seen since childhood. But she has disappeared too. In the meantime, Francesco reaches them in Rome, a new surprise awaits Davide: Francesco is the mysterious woman seen by Rosa. Davide runs away from the truth. He continues his journey to Naples with the investigator. Impero and Davide are on the run, like hunted animals. The last few days have made the passive detective and the fragile young man much closer to each other. Impero feels responsible for Davide’s crime, who opens up revealing how much he feels betrayed by his family in his need for love and certainty. Impero has now entered completely in Davide’s life and places; he feels that for the first time he has now managed to get out of his depression.
He can conquer life again. He does not care about the risks anymore.