A young boy accidentally discovers a deep hole in the ground, where another boy is kept prisoner.

While playing outside one day, nine-year-old Michele discovers Filippo, who is chained to the ground at the bottom of a hole. Michele witnesses town baddie Felice nearby and suspects something bad is happening. Michele is unsure whom he should tell about his discovery, eventually spilling the beans to his closest friend.—Anonymous

In southern Italy, Michele, a bright ten-year-old boy, finds a filthy, incoherent boy chained in a cellar hidden outside his village, but fears to speak of it. Putting together what he learns from television, he begins to connect the boy, his own impoverished parents, and a series of unexplained visiting strangers, with a high-profile kidnapping that has the entire nation on edge.—Jasha

Michele Amitrano is a true country bambino (10): cute as an angel, curious and enterprising as a rascal and means everything to his parents. Father Pino Amitrano is a truck driver, and is often away. Even when he's at home he deals with dodgy villagers and other friends, while mother Anna spoils his useless kid sister Maria rotten. Michele is mostly left doing his sisters chores, getting either of them out of trouble, roaming the sparsely populated grain lands on his bicycle and playing with local kids, which often means minor trouble. One day after a dare leads the mildly mischievous gang to a ruined house, he returns alone to retrieve the glasses that his sister had left behind. Michele accidentally finds a deep hole outside, beneath a metal cover, and sees a boy's bare foot under a blanket inside. At first Michele rides off for his life, but soon he returns, and after some more scary and disappointing tries finds out it's a boy his age, blinded by a living his life in the dark, deep hole. Michele conquers his fear and the boy, Filippo's, confidence, and generously feeds and entertains him. Overhearing his parents and their friends returning to this hole, Michele soon suspects that Filippo is a wealthy family's kidnapped son.—KGF Vissers