The action of the film takes place in 1978, in a fictional town called Acqua Traverse in Southern Italy, during the hottest summer of the century and the infamous Years of Lead.

A nine-year-old boy named Michele Amitrano and a group of his friends set out on a race across scorched wheat fields to a deserted farmhouse.

As his punishment Michele walks the length of a beam, high up in a rickety old barn-like building at the deserted farmhouse, and after that the group is seen going home.

He opens it and sees part of a bare human leg; horrified, due to the limited time he had to investigate the situation, he decides to keep this a secret from the others.

On the way he sees the familiar face of Skull's older brother driving away from the house and thinks this may be the person who has imprisoned the boy.

During this time Michele's undaunted curiosity leads him to begin questioning the confused, possibly delusional, and traumatized boy.

He continues visiting Filippo (Mattia di Pierro) and one day he lets him out for some hours of play in the wheat fields together, and then he returns him back to the hole.

To win a toy as a present for Filippo, he barters with his best friend Salvatore for a toy blue van by offering to share a secret, and reveals to him Filippo's existence, but Salvatore is uncomfortable about the news, even though he surrenders the van and promises Michele that he will not share his secret with anyone else.

But then one day Skull cajoles his peers into again visiting the farmhouse, where Michele discovers the hole empty and Filippo gone.

However, Filippo appears and risks his own life to show gratitude to Michele, just as helicopters arrive and track down the ringleader trying to escape.

The film was shot in Basilicata and Apulia, regions of southern Italy where director Gabriele Salvatores spent his youth.

[3] Salvatores chose to challenge the kind of Italian film that typically becomes popular on the foreign market: "the beautiful ocean, the nostalgic past, mafia, pizza, and mandolins.

At the time, it was alarmingly common to kidnap people from the North and transport them to the South, where they would be hidden and sometimes killed unless the ransom was paid.

It became such a problem that the Italian government decided to automatically freeze the assets of any families whose children had been kidnapped and contacted by people wanting a ransom to discourage this phenomenon.

The veteran actors Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Dino Abbrescia, and Giorgio Careccia were cast in the adult roles.

There are many views of fields and hills of wheat, this endless land being the backyard for the children of Acqua Traverse and the setting to their childhood adventures.

The film used a strong primary color scheme to portray the way children see the world, focusing on specific objects of interest with a close-up.

The film score is primarily by a string quartet, that includes original music by Ezio Bosso, Quartetto d'Archi di Torino.

The site's consensus states: "A well-acted and thrilling coming-of-age tale that captures a child awakening to the frightening world of adults.