Carmen comes from a difficult past: taken away from her mother during adolescence, she grew up in a foster home. Massimo is an only child, raised in a wealthy and oppressive family. Their only daughter, Giada, 5 years old, was entrusted to the father. Carmen has the right to see her every other Saturday, but Carmen doesn't accept it: she doesn't want her child to grow up without a mother, like she did.
Benedetta, an obese fifteen-year-old yearning for attention, lives in a tawdry province in the south of Italy, emblematic of her inner landscape where everything could be and yet is not. She falls in love with Armando, aka Amanda, a young transvestite who is attracted to the young girl's innocence and begins an unhealthy relationship of mutual dependence with her. Amanda runs a carousel at the fair across the street from Benedetta's house, and the girl is magnetically drawn to this colorful and exciting world. But Amanda not only runs the carousel, she's also a call boy and sells drugs. Between intoxication and family rebellion and the discovery of sex - a great disappointment - she completes her rite of passage into adulthood.
The daring journey through Europe of two somewhat naive friends, Salvatore and Felice, fleeing a small town in Puglia, who find themselves catapulted to Rotterdam and then to Iceland. For the first time in their lives they will discover what it means to feel alive and happy. Through some mishap and with the help of the generous and extravagant Anke, they will overcome their fears and inhibitions. They will be overwhelmed by life, discovering the joy of existing and of experiencing and receiving affection and love in a strange triangle of relationships typical of a 'modern family', bizarre and reassuring at the same time.