The Big Dream is a film that takes place in Italy during 1968, when young people dreamed of changing the world and rules were broken, when love was free and all seemed possible.

Nicola, a handsome young man originally from Apulia in Southern Italy, is a police officer in Rome who harbors dreams of becoming an actor. He must go undercover and infiltrate the student protest movement. At the university, he encounters Laura, a young woman from a bourgeois, Catholic background, a brilliant and impassioned student who dreams of a world free of injustice, and Libero, the leader of the protest movement who dreams of revolution. Feelings and strong passions develop between the three and Laura must choose which of the two men she wishes to love. Giulio and Andrea, Laura's younger brothers, also feel caught up in this atmosphere of revolt and spread trouble in the family.

This filmis inspired by its director's own experience: Michele Placido, once a police officer, arrived in Rome and decided to  follow his calling for the dramatic arts... his own big dream.