La vita promessa

Western Sicily in the 1920s. Here begins the saga of the family of a beautiful, courageous woman, Carmela Carrizzo, mother of five children and Salvatore’s loving wife.

Carmela and her family farm the land of a nobleman, the administrator and “capeddu” of which is, Vincenzo Spanò, an unscrupulous man, fond of shady dealings. Spanò has always hated Salvatore, Carmela’s husband. First, because he’s obsessed with possessing the woman who has always rejected him, or so it seems; second, because Salvatore is a union representative ante litteram who foments the other farmers to react against the reckless exploitation of the one administering the landed estate, that is, Spanò.

When Salvatore is being murdered by Spanò, Carmela agrees to a proxy marriage in order to go to America with her children and start a new life. But Carmela doesn’t know that Spanò, discovering her escape due to his contacts with the American mafia, has sworn he’ll have no peace until he finds her and makes her pay.