A struggling Puglian restaurateur, hit by war-driven price hikes, persuades friends to revive decades-old cigarette smuggling, using the illicit trade as a metaphor to expose the political, cultural, and environmental abandonment of the Brindisi-Taranto region.

Paola Clemente was a 49-year-old farm labourer who worked to death under the sun in the fields of Southern Italy. Her story is told through the declarations taken from the fact-finding acts on illegal recruiters of farm labourers exploiting her and by women travelling on the coach with her.