The film, based on the book (again, hopefully the two are close as i could not find much info onn the book that was in english) is set in 1978 in a fake town named Acqua Travers which is in Italy. A 10-year-old boy named Michele is playing with his friends (Skull and others) in a scorched field. As they go, he leaves his sister's glasses behind and goes back to get them. While looking for them he finds a hole revealing a bare leg. Horrified, he runs away, deciding to keep it a secret from the gang as he does not want this discovery to be taken from him. The next day he returns and throws rocks at the leg. As he searches for more rocks he finds that the leg has dissapeared and a boy seeming to be undead  stumbles into view. He hurried home quickly, but his bike breaks and he is scolded for being late. 

The day after that, he decides to visit the zombie-boy. He discovers the boy is alive, just extremely weak. He feeds the boy and wonders who captured him. On the way, he sees a face-Skull's brother. He thinks it is him who has kidnapped the boy. however, the boy believes himself to be dead.

One night, while watching the news, he sees the zombie boy on tv and discovers he is named Filippo, a boy kidnapped from milam. Amazingly, Michele realises that his playmates' parents and even his father was involved in the kidnapping. He tells Filippo a message his mother told him on television and eventually the boy comes to realise he is not dead. In exchange for a toy for Filippo, Michele tells his friend Salvatore of zombie boy's existence.

On his next visit Skull's older brother finds him with Filippo and drives him back home. His mother is furious with the kidnapper but his father with him. After that, filippo is missing and later found in a cave, ready to be "executed". Michele's Father shows up to kill Filippo, but he ends up shooting his sons leg as Filippo escapes.