Venice has drowned, submerged by the deadly effects of one last acqua alta. But before this environmental disaster, the Melegatti family was torn apart by different political convictions about the future of the Queen of the Adriatic. On one side were the rudderless middle classes, represented by the father, Guido, who wanted to exploit tourism in the city for financial ends. On the other was his wife Maria Alba, descended from nobility, delighting and luxuriating in the bygone splendours of a now-sleeping city on the brink of collapse. Between these two parents, young Lea must take a stand with her environmental activism.