In 1950, the small Calabrian village of Caulonia still numbered nearly 15,000 souls, but there now remain no more than a few hundred. A phlegmatic old man and a young disabled woman are among the last inhabitants who haunt the deserted village. They seem to be waiting apathetically for their end and resemble the old boat abandoned on the shore. Il Dono is the story of those who have left, told by those who have stayed; a tale of disaster and exodus.