Matteo Scuro is a retired Sicilian bureaucrat (responsible mainly for the writing of birth certificates), a widower with five children, all of whom live on the mainland and hold responsible jobs. He decides to surprise each with a visit and finds none as he imagined. The film is a veritable travelogue across contemporary Italy, as Matteo journeys to Naples, Rome, Florence, Milan, and Turin to search for each of his children; he even spends one night on the streets among the homeless. Scuro returns to Sicily, visits his wife's grave, and reports with irony that "stanno tutti bene."