The story is set in , a small coastal village in Sicily. It follows the Valastro family , particularly the idealistic eldest son, 'Ntoni .
: In the end, a defeated 'Ntoni is forced to swallow his pride and return to work as a day laborer for the very wholesalers he once defied. Cinematic Significance La terra trema(1948)
: Tired of the meager earnings dictated by greedy wholesalers, 'Ntoni convinces his family to mortgage their ancestral home. Their goal is to buy their own boat and salt their own fish, bypassing the middlemen to keep the profits for themselves. The story is set in , a small coastal village in Sicily