Thirteen year-old Sandro is from Brescia in northern Italy, only son of a family that in just two generations has achieved significant wealth. One night, during a sailing trip through the Mediterranean, Sandro falls into the sea, and the others on board notice too late. When they return to look for him, there is no sign of the boy. Although given up for dead, Sandro, instead, has managed to be rescued by a fishing boat carrying illegal aliens to Italian shores. Thus, begins an adventurous return to Italy. Having confronted hitherto unknown expectations, rejections, hopes and disillusionments, Sandro has crossed over that thin line between adolescence and adulthood. And once over that threshold, nothing is like it was before.