Pinuccio Lovero has always dreamed of working as a gravedigger. At 40 years of age, he is finally employed on a fixed-term contract as keeper of the cemetery at Mariotto, a hamlet in Bitonto, in the blazing hot deep South. In the middle of a sweltering summer, he waits for his first funeral. For, since his arrival five months ago nobody has passed away yet in Mariotto. Pinuccio is restless, the peasants are overjoyed. But, sooner or later, somebody will die and Pinuccio waits hopefully, standing before the gate to “his” cemetery.