On July 19–21, 2001, over 200,000 people took to the streets of Genoa to protest against the ongoing G8 summit. Anti-globalization activists clashed with the police, with 23-year-old protester Carlo Giuliani shot dead after confronting a police vehicle. In the aftermath, the police organized a night raid on the Diaz high school, where around a hundred people between unarmed protesters—mostly students—and independent reporters who documented the police brutality during the protests had took shelter. What happened next was called by Amnesty International "the most serious breach of civil liberties in a democratic Western country since World War II."

Marta works for a poll company, listening all day to other people's dreams while leading a cold and solitary life. Having just cut off a long relationship, she tries an online sex chat under an alias, meeting a man who begins to advance more and more audacious requests, until they decide to discover their respective identities.