This is the first of a two-part saga. In a final period of hopeful innocence, free-spirited Nicola travels the world and settles for a career as a successful psychiatrist. Meanwhile, his tragically introverted and idealist brother Matteo joins the Italian police with the hopes of righting society's wrongs. Their politics and personalities are inextricably intertwined as the world around them violently shifts, and they are pushed together -- and pulled apart -- by the tides of history, as well as their own divergent dreams.