It is the late 1940’s in a rural Friulian village, on the feast of St. Anthony the Abbot, patron saint of farmers and animals. A shy and awkward boy, Tunuti, is sent by his mother to take the family cow to be blessed at the local church. On his way he encounters Paoli, a young poet from the city working as a schoolteacher in the village. An avowed atheist, Paoli questions and lectures Tunuti about his faith, the monk’s robe that his mother makes him wear, and the misguided nature of animal blessings and religion in general. Far from convincing Tunuti of anything, the interaction does provide Stella the cow a chance to escape, forcing Paolo to try and find her, and in so doing, gain a deeper understanding of the rural culture he so admires but can never really belong to.