"Come! It's your lucky moment!! A great future lies ahead of you!" Joe Morelli, a resourceful young man with an adventurous past, harangues the inhabitants of the Sicilian villages through his megaphone. We're in 1953, Joe is a talent scout - he promises those who pass his meticulous screen-test a brilliant acting career in Cinecitta. He is the man who can make dreams come true, the miracle man: he can turn a miserable, hopeless life into one of wealth and glory. And all those who have lost or never had much faith in life's opportunities, gradually come gathering round: young men, girls, children, people who, like the immigrants of the past, hope to create a solid future. The candidates try out their acting capacities in front of Joe's camera but their screen-tests inevitably turn into confessions. They tell their tragic or comical stories, they talk of their sins, the injustice they've suffered and the personal tragedies they have never spoken to anyone about. They talk about Sicily, its loneliness, its confused and riotous need for redemption, dignity, wellbeing. Beata, an eighteen year old orphan, emerges in this kaleidoscope of human cases, she could change Joe's life if the adventure of "the star maker" didn't take an unexpected turn. And Joe will realize, that he too, like the Sicilians he auditions, is alone, unappreciated, defeated, capable only of dreaming.