Alfred is a small boy who lives with his family in the woods near an isolated village in the mountains of Italy. His parents have strong prejudices against immigrants. Bored and unhappy, they often quarrel, and they pay little attention to their son and usually disregard his needs for attention and affection. One day, wishing to get away from this oppressive atmosphere, Alfred disobeys his fathers strict orders for him to stay at home and he leaves the house to go and see his classmates. On his journey through the woods he gets lost and he comes across a wooden sled and its owner, a young boy from another country who seems strange and different, and who Alfred has sometimes seen around the village. After an initial clash, in which they project the prejudices of their parents and society onto each other, they tell each other about their lives. They soon start to relate to each other and understand each others problems. Thanks to riding together on the sled they seem to enter into a magic world that gives Alfred his first experience of a genuine relationship with another person.