A fiction feature film, "Fondovalle" set in a valley which many pass through, but where the trains do not stop any more; a valley whose factories have closed down, whose countryside has been abandoned. Taking place over the summer, "Fondovalle" opens with the symbolic closing of the dortress which, in older times, was meant to protect the border and where the film's protagonist, Roberto used to work security guard. Finding himself out of work, Roberto becomes a bus driver and thus gets to meet a number of people from the valley: a microcosm which "Fondovalle" reflects. Thanks to his bus-driving, Roberto gets to know Marina, a Russian wine-waitress, and falls in love with her, which her young son Kiro initially takes very badly. The bus route also brings Roberto into contact with several individuals; Tatiana and Olga, two young women about whom almost nothing is known; Dario, distraught since he lost his job when the steel-work closed town; Clara and her daugher Maria, two women who live elsewhere and have returned to make an inventroy of the family house; and Tato, another former security guard at the fortress, who has been given the job of oversee the steel-works which is being mantled.