The film brings to life four tales from Luigi Pirandello’s 15-volume short story collection Novelle per un anno, all set in and around his native Sicily during the 19th century. Linking the stories is a raven, introduced in the prologue as it receives a small bell tied around its neck by villagers. This bird becomes a surreal guide, leading viewers from one story to the next. Each segment runs approximately 40 minutes.
“The Other Son” (L’altro figlio) follows a mother who hasn’t heard from her two sons since they left for America 14 years ago. Despite their silence, she idolizes them, ignoring her third son who stayed behind and continues to care for her. Her coldness toward him is revealed through flashbacks to 1860, shortly after Garibaldi’s arrival in Sicily.
“Moonsickness” (Mal di luna) tells the story of Sidora, who discovers shortly after her honeymoon that her husband Batà suffers from a mysterious condition: during full moons, he howls outside like a wolf and scratches at the door trying to get back in. To save the marriage, Batà allows the attractive Saro to stay at their house on full-moon nights to protect Sidora.
“The Jar” (La giara) shifts to comedy: a wealthy landowner, Don Lollò, has a giant jar made for storing olive oil, but it mysteriously cracks. He calls in the famous jar-repairman, Zi’ Dima, known for his secret glue. Zi’ Dima successfully mends the jar—but from the inside. When Don Lollò refuses to break it again to free him, chaos ensues.
“Requiem” tells of a group of peasants who wish to bury their dead in their own village rather than walking a full day to the town cemetery. Their landlord, a baron, refuses their plea. As the villagers begin to build their own burial site, the authorities are called in to shut them down.
A final 20-minute epilogue, “Conversing with Mother” (Colloquio con la madre), imagines a reflective Pirandello returning to his homeland years after his mother’s death. He engages in a dreamlike conversation with her, asking her to recount a childhood journey to Malta to visit her exiled father. The film closes on an evocative image of children sliding down soft, white pumice hillsides on the island of Lipari, toward the sea.