Vincenzo is fifty and he has worked in a steel mill near Naples for over thirty years. He is a maintenance specialist for the mill’s highly sophisticated technical equipment. The mill is closed now and a group of Chinese technicians, lead by Mr. Chong, has come to purchase and dismantle the factory and transfer the equipment to China. Vincenzo is supposed to explain the machine blueprints to the buyers but when he refuses to demonstrate the casting ladle to them – he considers it defective and responsible for the death of a worker – he is fired. At a dinner with the Chinese delegation Vincenzo meets Liu Hua, the young Chinese translator. By the time Vincenzo finally identifies the casting ladle’s defect the Chinese delegation has left. Vincenzo heads to Shanghai where Mr. Chong tells him that the casting ladle has already been sold to another factory. Accompanied by Liu Hua, Vincenzo sets out on a long journey through China to find the casting ladle.