Reinhold Messner is one of the most famous mountaineers in history. His ambition and desire to overcome the limits of what is possible and the continuous improvement of human resistance are his distinguishing marks. The film recounts his extraordinary life, through interviews with Messner himself and with those he has encountered on his way; from the desire to leave a home which was already too restricted for him in his childhood, to the successes and failures of his more dangerous expeditions. Some of the climbing scenes were re-filmed along the original itineraries in the Dolomites, on the north face of the Droites in the Mont Blanc massif, on Mount Everest and in Greenland.