In 1909, four fearless entrepreneurs and then-unknown Irish writer James Joyce met in Trieste, the main port of the Austro-Hungarian empire, where he convinced them to expand their cinema business and invest in the opening of Ireland's first full time cinema. The Cinema Volta is not a historical documentary about the opening of a landmark cinema, but a light, spirited and modern personal search for the spirit of the people involved.

Matteo is a young successful businessman, audacious, charming and energetic. Ettore instead, is a calm, righteous, second grade teacher always living in the shadows, still in the small town from where both come from. They’re brothers but with two very different personalities. A dramatic event will force them to live together in Rome for a few months, bringing up the opportunity to face their differences with sympathy and tenderness, in a climax of fear and euphoria.

The old and overcrowded penitentiaries are just a memory. Inmates now serve their sentence in a state of deep sleep that renders them harmless, and has drastically reduced recidivism. Until one day, a psychologist in charge of monitoring the mental state of inmates finds himself confronted with a prisoner over whom he's lost all control.

As a solar storm unfolds, causing power surges and blackouts, a storm of emotions rages within Regina, a spinster referred to as Fräulein, when a childlike sexagenarian checks into her hotel. What should be one night becomes a stormy coexistence all its own.

The Italian Painter Michele is forced by his rich girlfriend to move to a new house in Trieste, abandoning his privileged life. He finds himself in a new world full of extravagant neighbors and unusual situations that will eventually change his values and prospective of life.