Summer 1966. A young man from southern Italy and elementary school teacher in a small town in Abruzzo, is studying for state exams to qualify for a permanent job. He is separated from his wife, a young woman from the Po Valley in northern Italy, with whom he has two small children. The problem is not that they don't love each other. The problem is their families, who come from radically different cultures and traditions and who have been waging a subtle war since before the wedding. He is now living in a small rented room in the south, she is in her parents large country manor in the Po Valley. When he decides to take back the two children, he stages an armed kidnapping. Then he makes the long trip down through Italy in a Volkswagen beetle, heading for his parents house in a beautiful corner of the Salentina peninsula. When his telegram arrives, announcing his arrival with the children, his mother gets to work, preparing lunch, more a banquet than a lunch. The highway police stop the Volkswagen a few kilometers from the house. The teacher is arrested and taken away by the police.