In 1939, a father disappears from his home in Avetrana, a small town in the 'heel' of Italy, leaving the 7-year-old Pasquale Carone as sole breadwinner, forced to steal produce from the fields to keep his family alive. Ten years on, he has to rescue his older sister, Andrea, from near ruination in Taranto, causing his family to go on the run from town to town, hiding from the chasing mafia. Meanwhile, he takes up metal detecting, searching for ancient coins, and he quickly finds wealth in this novel enterprise. Falling in love with Stefania they move to Napoli, but calamity strikes and he has to return to yet another small Puglian town to start life again. Soon summoned to Rome to help his troubled younger sister, Maria, he gets caught up in the swinging-sixties nightlife and sinks to his lowest ebb of despair. Will he ever return to his homeland to discover treasure in the fields? Will he ever be reunited with his true love Stefania? Will he and the Carone family ever find happiness? In three decades of family ups and downs much can eventuate against the backdrop of a rapidly- changing, post-war Italy...