A Chinese delegation arrives in Italy to purchase a large piece of equipment from a steel mill in the process of being dismantled.
Vincenzo Buonavolontà, an Italian maintenance worker at the mill, specialized in machinery, is convinced that the blast furnace up for sale is not in working order, and he stubbornly insists on working to correct the flaw so that no harm may come to the workers using the furnace as has happened in the past.
Vincenzo manages to determine the cause of the defect, but the Chinese have already left for their home country, bringing the machinery with them.
He does not have to think twice about it – Vincenzo flies to Shanghai to delivery personally the new hydraulic control unit he has modified to operate the blast furnace properly. But an unpleasant surprise awaits him: the Chinese firm which bought the Italian equipment has already resold it; the head of the delegation, whom he met in Italy, has moved on to new duties; and, most importantly, no one knows or wants to say where the blast furnace has been installed.
Thus begins Vincenzo Buonavolontà’s odyssey through a China that in no way resembles the image he had had of the country. Accompanied by Liu Hua, a university student in her early 20’s who is studying Italian and is a guide as willing as she is inexpert, Vincenzo travels the full width and breadth of this great country searching for “his” blast furnace.
Traveling from one city to another, following the Yangtze River, and then on up to Southern Mongolia, the voyage is enriched by discoveries, emotions, tantrums and incidents. It is a route of extraordinary new experiences in which the young Liu Hua plays a key role, while behind her tender face hide many secrets…