In late 19th-century Sicily, the noble Uzeda family—whose lineage dates back to the ancient viceroys that ruled those lands—fights to preserve its waning power in the face of the newly unified Italian regime.
1828. In the wake of the repression of revolutionary uprisings in the monarchist South, three young friends join Giuseppe Mazzini's patriotic cause, seeking to finally unify Italy under a republican government. Their idealism will clash with the inevitable disillusionment as they grow apart over the following fifty years.
1848, Tuscan countryside. Edo and Lupo are two peasants running away after having robbed their boss. Chased by mercenaries, they'll meet bandits, damsels in distress, eccentric nobles, and revolutionaries along the way.
The docufictional narration of the genesis of the Risorgimento epic from the birth of Vittorio Emanuele II until the First War of Independence (1849), of which the Proclama is the epilogue.
Franco, a young man of noble descent, marries Luisa, daughter of a humble clerk, against his grandmother's will.