Artemio is a farmer who lives in a small and remote village in the Lombard countryside, inhabited mainly by the elderly, where the only pastime is to observe the passage of the train. He lives with his elderly mother Giovanna, who would love to see him married to Maria Rosa, the only girl in the town, who has long been in love with him. However, Artemio does not reciprocate these feelings and, on his fortieth birthday, he suddenly realizes that he has never really lived a life outside the countryside where he was born and raised, and above all that he does not want to continue to be a farmer to the rest of his days. He then decides to leave everything and try his luck leaving for Milan.