Giorgio , a young and friendly Albanian nicknamed “the italian” reaches the Apulian coast. They are put in the old football stadium of Bari and eventually sent back to their own country. After a few months he tries again the journey on a rubber dinghy. He finally arrives in Italy where he sets out to look for his grandfather from the Abruzzi region. He hopes he will help him to make his dream come true, to find a way to stay in Italy and to settle down. There Giorgio finds out that his grandfather is dead. Without any hope he accepts a job as muleteer offered to him by Silvestro, a rough though good-natured woodsman.Giorgio and Luisa fall for each other but she is already linked to Silvestro. The two men are involved in a violent fight after which Silvestro is injured. Giorgio is later arrested.