11-year-old swimming ace Tommi and 12-year-old Viola are being raised by financially struggling single dad Renato. Their individual lonelinesses, and the collective family need for the return of the most important woman in their lives, creates a strong bond within the surviving family unit, that is until she actually returns. Italian actor Kim Rossi Stuart makes an impressive directorial debut with this moving and richly rewarding coming-of-age drama, which won the Directors' Fortnight prize at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival; a convincing portrait of a family.