Giuseppe Pitrè was an ethnologist who collected documents pertaining to Sicily and its culture and traditions. His work is the basis for this documentary, which unites live footage, drawings, and archival documents.

We learn about Pitrè's life, and his relationship to the sea.

In this segment, we see some swordfish harpoon fishing, and hear an old Sicilian legend about a boy named Nicola who could stay underwater for a very long time.

Pitrè's life was marked by a sort of travelling storyteller tradition in his family. In those days, a cuntastorie (storyteller) would go around to all the piazzas and tell stories, and people would pay to hear them.

This segment focuses on an actor who retells and acts out stories from Sicily's past, speaking in Sicilian dialect. He uses the Pitrè Museum as a source for material. The museum houses a manuscript with over 4,000 Sicilian proverbs, just one of the many volumes of Sicilian ethnographic material.

Pitrè's mission was to conserve and safeguard the traditions of his people, the Sicilians, and to keep the roots alive. Looking at religious traditions is one important way to do this.

Saint Rosalia (1130–1166), recognized by her crown of roses, is Palermo's patron saint. The video shows the July 14 parade in honor of the saint, and a young man who credits his cure from a grave illness to Saint Rosalia.

The segment concentrates on the richness of the Sicilian dialect, a dialect which is less and less spoken. The narrator interviews two poets who recite their works in Sicilian, providing insights into the language.

Giuseppe Pitrè received his degree in medicine in 1865. His patients, among Palermo's poorest, provided him with a wealth of ethnographic material.

A woman performs a traditional Sicilian ritual involving the sticking of pins into an onion, accompanied by prayers, in order to bring back the boyfriend of her suppliant.

Giuseppe Pitrè loved attending performances of chivalric folk plays in Palermo. This segment follows a marionette player at Palermo's Opera dei Pupi, the same theater where Pitrè went to see folk epics.

Palermo faces the sea and has a very long history of immigration. The narrator interviews a young woman whose great grandfather came to Sicily from Sudan. She is involved in educating immigrants from Africa and Asia. Pitrè was also highly involved in education.

A Palermo doctor is interviewed about his practice and the African and Southeast Asian immigrant patients that he treats.

A Palermo doctor discusses the Integration of immigrants in Sicily and highlights the successes in healthcare. Medical assistance is provided for all immigrants, whether lawful or not.

The documentary comes to a close with an interview regarding a prison cell used during the Inquisition. The cell bears the graffiti of its inmates. Pitrè had laboriously uncovered the graffiti, but it was only rediscovered in the 1970s by the writer Leonardo Sciascia and the interviewee in this segment, Giuseppe Quatriglio, who used Pitrè's writing to find it.

Rita Levi Montalcini talks about what, as a little girl, she wanted to be when she grew up. One of her main goals was to help women, especially ones from poor countries, become what they were meant to become.

Rita Levi Montalcini was a strong proponent of education and instruction as the means to gain freedom. She was also an example of it. This segment describes a visit to women in prison, and the obstacles Montalcini had to face, as a woman and as a Jew, during the Nazi-Fascist regime.

This documentary opens with some lines from a poem by Pier Paolo Pasolini, “10 giugno” from 1962. The famous filmmaker and poet talks about his life, beginning with his troubled relationship with his father.

Pasolini talks about his first book of poetry and what he realized about his country when it was published in 1942. He explains why reviewers wouldn't touch it.

Pasolini talks about the Italian language and how it has been transformed over the years.

Pasolini talks about how artists are always controversial. They are a living protest. His protest involves language and national identity.

Pasolini talks about how he moved from literature to cinema, and how his ideas about language changed. He talked about providing Italians with an opportunity to demonstrate racism, perhaps for the first time, with his movie, Accattone.

In this segment, we're on the set with Pasolini as he shouts directions to Totò through his megaphone, and at the same time discusses the shoot with his crew. Naturally, authenticity often means people speak over each other, so it's hard to understand what is said. Then, Pasolini is asked by a journalist about his views on neorealism and here, the speech is clearer (and interesting), so don't give up!

In World War I, Italians who up until then had spoken their regional dialects, found themselves fighting side by side against a common enemy. But Mussolini was interested in fighting the internal enemy.