Mariano has lived by the laws of the Camorra for his whole life; obeying unwritten rules of membership and loyalty arid putting the interest of the clan above all else. However when he discovers that he has been betrayed he decides to break off completely from those he considered his friends.
He is alone, without objects of affection, without friends. but with much remorse and one great regret having murdered his brother Salvatore., whom he wrongly believed was behind the attack that killed his wife Rita. Even his only daughter refuses to see him because she cannot forgive him for being a "man of honour". If it wasn't for her, Mariano's life would be reduced to a passive wait for perhaps inevitable events to take their course. In this state of mind, he decides to come to terms with his destiny and seeks refuge in his villa on the slopes of the Vesuvius, which is a sort of hermitage built right over one of the ever less dormant volcano's small craters.
His house is shaking and along with it. Pompei, the Miglio d'Oro, the beaches of Portici and Torre del Greco, the hinterland. The scientists from the Vesuvius Observatory fear an imminent eruption and activate a monitoring plan. A volcanologist is sent to Mariano's villa to install the technical instruments for the survey. She is Luisa, a fragile young woman who hides her loneliness., and the emotional void of her life in her work.
Luisa and Mariano have nothing in common except for a deep sense of the failure they are experiencing and which attracts them to each other. Between the young woman, exploited and disillusioned by an ambitious colleague, and the mature ex-criminal, the spark of friendship is kindled.
Mariano also has a guardian angel: Judge Gallo, who offers him the key to a new future. Gallo knows Mariano has no way out. He wouldn't need to do much to save his own life: just say a few words against those who murdered his wife, whoever set him up against his brother. and whoever is threatening his daughter's life. But Mariano does not fit into the world of law and order and order and is used to considering men associated with institutionalised justice as enemies, Mariano is convinced however that he is the guiltiest of all and knows that he can neither condemn nor accuse anybody. He only wants his daughter pardoned. He will, find solidarity and affection in a young woman from another social world. Luisa will be able to heal the painful rupture between the man arid his daughter and will even offer him refuge when she understands that his life is in a danger. But having nothing left to lose he has only to wait for an enemy, or, perhaps even worse, someone who loves him, like his sister Teresa, to quickly carry out what must be done. And catastrophe, offset by the ever more menacing volcano, looms inevitably.