Davide is a thirty-year-old with a passion for books: he doesn’t read many, but he sells them in a square in Rome. His most loyal customer, Elsa, is also his partner in crime; she supplies him with used books and showers him with affection and tenderness.
But something goes awry on a day like any other: Davide is suddenly “handed” a child from North Africa on the street, as if it were a package, and the child won’t leave his side, following him in silence like a faithful little dog.
An accident, a rush to the hospital with the little stranger hanging between life and death. And Davide is plunged into a personal hell of hesitation, remorse, and bewilderment.
In the forbidden sanctuary of the emergency room, one night Davide meets Aminah, who has just arrived from Algeria on a migrant boat. She is a teenager, soaked to the bone by the rain, trembling, frightened, and clearly expecting a child. Davide has no choice but to take her in.
But that’s only the beginning. Every evening, when he returns from work, Davide finds more and more strangers in his apartment—a place meant for a solitary man. He resists in vain, but in the end he is forced to give in, whether out of generosity or weakness. His home is no longer just his own but also belongs to those who have no roof to shelter them—the many who sleep under a bridge or on a street corner. While a complaint filed by his neighbors lands him in jail for aiding and abetting illegal immigration, Davide experiences an odyssey to the fullest—one that is not only personal but also, in one way or another, upends the feelings of others.