Giulio and Lucia Cesaroni organize the ritual barbecue that marks the end of summer. Among those in attendance are Giulio's ever-present brother, mechanic Ezio Masetti, and his wife Stefania, a friend of Lucia's and the principal of the school where they both teach. Lucia's mother, Gabriella, is also present, of course, while the youngest member of the family, Mimmo, remarks that this year the doors to middle school are opening for him. Alice and Rudi, always a cat and dog, are instead opening up the far more terrifying doors of high school! Their eldest children, Marco and Eva, are far away: he studies music in Milan, while she's in New York majoring in journalism and living with her chef boyfriend, Alex. Their friend Walter, Stefania and Enzo's son, has remained hanging around Garbatella, drooling over Carlotta, his beautiful girlfriend from the upper-middle classes.