Grazia (Golino) is a free-spirited mother of three married to shy fisherman Pietro and living on the idyllic but isolated island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea. She shows signs of manic depressive behavior as one moment she's laughing wildly and swimming half-naked in the ocean, while the next she's curled in a ball on her bed. The adult members of her extended family vaguely discuss sending her to a facility