Marco and his family live in Genoa, Italy, a poor town where many local Italians went to work overseas. Marco's mother, Anna, is among one of them. Initially, Anna keeps writing back home while working in Argentina, but one day, the letters stopped. The boy then decides to search for his mother. Despite the journey's difficulties, Marco heads off into Argentina's interior, to meet his mother, who as the boy's bad luck would have to see his mother on her deathbed...