The film is set in Philadelphia in the present . Enrico, a humble 50 year old shoe manufacturer of Sicilian origin, lives with Mark, his 17 year old motherless son. Enrico is an admirable man and a good attentive father. He is generous with his employees, religious and always supportive of his son.
Enrico often tells Mark the story of his origins, a family of poor immigrants that more than a century ago left Sicily in pursuit of fortune in the New World. They were honest and strong willed people, who gained respect and prestige through their hard work.
This moving story is characterized by the unfailing presence of an “enemy”: the Mafia….which destroys and distorts all those positive values…a Mafia that killed his uncle, a trade unionist.
Mark grows up with his father who teaches him solidarity, respect, sense of duty and the need to defend oneself from the “enemy”… One day the enemy shows up as a Mafia boss who seriously wounds Enrico. Mark, profoundly upset by love for his father and hate for the Mafia, kills the boss.
Enrico miraculously recovers from being shot and survives, but, subsequently Mark painfully discovers , day by day, that Enrico’s story was a lie. In fact, Marks realizes that Enrico manipulated him, using his love and faith, with the aim of driving his own beloved son to murder the Mafia boss who Enrico will then replace.