Rosario works as a street seller on the fairgrounds of the suburbs of Naples. His dream to escape poverty latches onto the musical talent of his daughter Sharon. He turns into an impresario to make her a star of the Italian folk music.

The Crater is a land of underdogs, indistinct space, constant noise. Rosario is a street vendor, a "gitane" of village fairs, who gives away soft toys to whoever draws a winning number. The war he has declared against his own destiny has the immature and indolent body of his thirteen-year-old daughter: Sharon is pretty and can sing, and in this hotbed of stopgaps and desperate living, she's his weapon for survival. But success becomes an obsession, and talent becomes a punishment.—Venice Film Festival synopsis