Synopsis
The story is told in a future time, inside a post office – a day like any other. A scruffy man named Busu introduces the story of the Ciraulo family, like the other mini-stories he tells day after day to kill the time that consumes his loneliness. Some listen, and some, instead, at a certain point, grow tired and walk away, leaving him alone on that endless winter day.
There are six people in the Ciraulo family: Nicola, the head; his wife Loredana; plus their son Tancredi and their younger daughter Serenella. Nicola’s parents, Nonno Fonzio and Nonna Rosa, also live with them, on the outskirts of Palermo. During a trip to the sea with their friends and neighbours the Giacalone family, a stray bullet fired in a settling of accounts between rival gangs strikes and kills young Serenella. Their grief is immeasurable. But a glimmer of hope for an economic upturn appears when Giacalone tells Nicola he should apply for the compensation the State pays to victims of the Mafia. The mirage of receiving an enormous sum induces the family to spend the money before it is collected; they incur debts with everyone, believing that payment from the State is imminent. When the money finally comes in, once the debts are paid off the amount has shrunk considerably.
The family then meets to decide how to invest the money, and everyone has their own dreams they would like to see come true. Nicola promptly knocks down each request with one argument after another, and only at the end does he set out his own idea: a luxury automobile, a Mercedes. That car is a symbol of wealth, and the only status people – particularly in their neighbourhood – respect. With this mirage of eternal honour, he manages to persuade them.
For the Ciraulo family, the Mercedes becomes more than a symbol of wealth: it becomes the symbol of the Misery of Wealth, an instrument of ruin and defeat.