The final stages of the life of a professor driven mad by the death of his son, to the point of killing his dog, which can no longer stand the sight of. A night on the town with friends in the 30s in a small town in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. The fall of a family of small farmers and the farm that kept them. Three stories set between the Po Valley and the Apennines with the flavour of the seasons, corncobs, fireplaces, drinking, eating, roads and strangers.
Stories of friends and, perhaps, stories of friendship and a single protagonist; winter, the season that most encourages an atmosphere of introspection. With characters, situations and landscapes that have the features and colours of Emilia, the smell of a wood fire and the open-mouthed amazement of those gathered in the stables where extraordinary storytellers would spend the winter. Three celebrated characters, three different careers. And the pleasure of telling a story in the manner best suited to each of them.