Two Italians schemers, Fiore, in his forties, and Gino, younger but eager to learn, arrive in Albania. Taking advantage of the existing chaos after the falldown of the communist system in 1991, the two men want to buy a shoe factory from the State at a very low price. There is an obstacle : the Albanian law demands the company to be managed by an Albanian. They are looking for a man of straw. They find him in an old government jail : Spiro Tozaï, a sick old man and a poor nut with no family who has endured thirty years of hard labour. The old man will be a docile instrument between their hands. All seems to be for the best. The contract is signed and Fiore returns to Italy leaving the business and Spiro to the care of his young associate. But the day before a meeting at the Ministery of Industry where the presence of the Albanian associate is essential, the old man runs away. Gino finds him, thanks to the police, in a hospital of a northern City. While he is taking him back, the tires of his car are stolen which leaves them both on foot, hundreds of miles away from the Capital. In an Albania devasted by hunger and rebellion, Gino and the old man follow thousands of emigrants who are trying to reach Tirana and from there Italy.