Young Tony decides to return to his hometown. There, he discovers his father has returned to France claiming to miss his friends and country of origin. Tony ends up becoming a teacher, and finds himself amid conflicts and inexperience.

Based on a novel "A Distant Father" by Antonio Skármeta, same author from "Il Postino :The Postman" and "No". The sierras of southern Brazil, 1963. The son of an French man and a Brazilian woman, Tony is a young man with a profound love of cinema and poetry. After graduating from college he returns to his small town in rural Brazil, to find out that his father had left for good. Tony then looks for the company of his father's friends in search of information and references of a lost male role model. He becomes a school teacher and a male figure to kids, in an attempt to provide them with something he lacks himself. A series of developments lead him to a surprising final lead on his father whereabouts and reasons for leaving.