Written by Mancini alongside Davide Lisino, the film is set in north-eastern Italy and opens with a scene where we see the protagonist Simone Segre as a child, forced by his father (Cosimo Fusco) to choose which kitten he wants to survive before drowning the remainder of the litter. Next, we see Simone as an adult (Alessandro Gassmann), now a well-known surgeon, intent on canoeing along a river. At the sound of a car accident, he abandons the boat and immediately offers his help. Finding a man who’s been seriously injured while driving, our doctor contacts the emergency services, tries to calm the man down and fashions a tourniquet out of a seat belt. But there’s one small detail which sends a shiver down his spine: the man has a swastika tattoo on his chest. Mindful of his father’s experiences as a Jewish concentration camp survivor, Segre loosens the tourniquet and flees the scene, leaving the man to his fate.