Pino, a fifty-year-old smuggler, and his brother Donato, a thirty-year old former musician come up against each other. Their relationship is made more difficult by the death of their father in an accident for which Pino feels guilty and for which Donato carries the most self-destructive consequences: he no longer plays his instrument, he hangs around local criminals and lets his brother support him, who does his best between a job at the market and illegal sales of smuggled cigarettes, even to repay an old debt. Pino plays in a group of popular music, the Zoè and is aware of the fact that for both of them music represents life in itself, and it can be the reason to react against injustice and pain. He would like Donato to start playing again and living. But he is not successful, and his sister tries too. Not even his girlfriend manages to give Donato the courage that only drugs still seem to give him. At the end the stubborn and vivacious group will obtain a record contract. But in the meantime Donato becomes involved in a robbery that will lead him to a tragic and vivid end, of blood and music, of dreams and hope.