Totò, a farmer by profession, and his son Ninetto set out on a journey through the outskirts of Rome to ask for an extension to pay off a debt on their farm. Along the way, the two discuss life and death with an unusual character: a talking crow. The latter claims to be a Marxist intellectual of the old guard, and theorises that humanity is divided into two parts: the one inhabited by hawks and the one inhabited by sparrows.