The late 1970s: counterculture and drug experiments, feminism and the fight for abortion rights, the closure of mental institutions and the last major social reforms, escalating militancy and increasing repression, fascist secret societies and weapons caches. The turning point year 1978: Aldo Moro is kidnapped and murdered. The country is in a state of emergency. While all this is happening, more and more Italians are seeing flying saucers. It is a mass phenomenon, the "Great Wave." Milena Cravero, a young anthropologist, travels to a ufologist conference in Rome, which is canceled due to Moro's kidnapping. Martin Zanka, a former partisan, tells stories about ancient astronauts in his novels. His son Vincenzo, who wants to overcome heroin addiction, lives in a commune on a country estate. Two scouts disappear in the woods of a mysterious mountain. A whirlpool of stories heads toward a dramatic finale. Wu Ming wonderfully blend reality and fiction, pop culture and film history. They offer a new perspective on a key year in Italian history, aiming to free it from the prison of the leaden age.