Trentino is a wealthy and solitary province with a statute of autonomy. Everyone believes that it has the highest quality of life at national level. This documentary-inquiry about porphyry mining in the province of Trento contradicts this cliché. Employment, environment and politics are the dark side of the largest industrial sector in the area. Workers and entrepreneurs, trade unionists and those responsible for public and private sector organisations tell their own story. In a small valley there are all the contradictions of a vast world: powerful forces, conniving companies and communities imprisoned by the often foolish exploitation of a natural resource which one day will no longer be there. Evidence of how management of a common resource may be the privilege of just a few, to the detriment of the community.