We learn some basic things about Chiara, Claudio, and their Calabrian home from a few early scenes. Some family members don’t like that Chiara vapes, because she’s a young woman. She testily points out the sexist double standard inherent in that logic, but that conversation doesn’t go far. A mysterious gang of men have just appeared up the street, so Chiara’s relatives must stop what they’re doing and meet them.

There are other portentous signs of danger to come, including an unexpected car bomb. Claudio also refuses to toast his eldest daughter Giulia (Grecia Rotolo) at her birthday party because he’s too emotional. His extensive protests wind up becoming the focus of this scene—“I don’t need to say it out loud”—since, as Giulia says, people are expecting a speech from him. The built-in ambiguities of these early scenes are fairly rote, but they’re also characteristic of a movie whose soft impressionistic focus tends to smother any observable human behavior on-screen.

Soon Chiara learns, through TV news reports, that her father’s a wanted man. First Claudio goes missing, then Chiara discovers the entrance to a hidden bunker. Chiara’s frustrated attempts at learning more about her dad takes up most of the movie’s focus, like when she stumbles upon a member of the Roma community, who tells Chiara that Claudio is a well-known figure called “U Picciu” (or “The Boy”). Chiara also tries to get more information about Claudio from her cousin Antonio (Antonio Rotolo), but he—and her mom Carmela (Carmela Fumo), and her sister Giorgia (Giorgia Rotolo)—refuse to talk about Claudio. An oppressive conspiracy seems to have formed around the subject, but it’s hard to know what it means, if anything.

The mundane details that make up this movie’s slice-of-life narrative often seem like short-hand. Chiara goes to the gym, enjoys drinking with her friends, cuts classes, and gets caught. In this way, it's suggested that she's halfway in her comfort zone and halfway on her way towards a young adulthood suggested by her father’s mysterious mafia-related identity. “It’s not what you think” she’s repeatedly told—and not just by Claudio—though who can say what Chiara’s thinking. I don’t really know how normal these activities are for Chiara, all I know is that they're a part of her life.

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