The black volcanic group of Aeolian islands candidly sets off the light and shade effects of Panarea with its cluster of tiny isles and Lipari's pumice and white beaches. An unmitigated cross-section of the Eolie as they used to be over fifty years ago, the film brings out small yet very significant details of a secluded piece of land. Panarea's women waiting for their emigrated men to come back and take them away and the frugality of life on the island perfectly fall into the synchronisms of existence's primal and essential rhythms. In the meanwhile in Lipari the very few residents work in the pumice quarry's white hell to earn their escape ticket.
