Pasqualino, on the day of his birthday, hears the voice of his father telling: "Now that you are thirteen and are a man, you finally can stay with the animals".
The games with its friends along the roads of Burgio are a distant memory, and what he most suffers is the separation from 12-year-old Saro (his brother) and from grandfather Pasquale whose name he inherited.
Saro, born a paraplegic, needs of a lot of cares and expenses that worsen a very difficult economic situation.
One day Vito, for carelessness, loses a sheep, the owners infuriated hits the boy, who has a hemorrhage and dies.
But a surprise restores hope: Pasqualino's grandfather has persuaded the tailor to go up there, to measure on the incredulous boy his new double chest suit.
On the eve of his last work day, an event upsets forever the life of Pasqualino: a peasant warns him to return urgently home.