Towards the end of the 30’s Guido, a Jewish man who dreams of owning a bookshop, moves with his friend Ferruccio, a poet, to a small city in Toscany, Italy. Mere innocents, they seek fortune and romance, ignoring the wave of anti-semitism that is spreading across Europe. Guido falls in love with Dora (Nicoletta Braschi) and, after a series of misunderstandings, the two eventually get married. On the day of his son Giosué’s birthday, the family is seized by German troops and sent to a concentration camp. From this moment on, Guido struggles to perform forced labour while trying to find ways of contacting his wife, detained in another part of the camp. But most important of all are his efforts to keep his son alive and away from that terrible reality.