In 1973, five men and six women drifted across the Atlantic on a raft as part of a scientific experiment exploring the origins of violence and sexual attraction. Nobody expected what ultimately took place on that 3-month journey. Through archive material and a reunion of the surviving members of the expedition, this film tells the hidden story of the project.

The story is set at the beginning of the 20th century in Sicily. Salvatore, a very poor farmer, and a widower, decides to emigrate to the US with all his family, including his old mother. Before they embark, they meet Lucy. She is supposed to be a British lady and wants to come back to the States. Lucy, or Luce as Salvatore calls her, for unknown reasons wants to marry someone before to arrive to Ellis Island in New York. Salvatore accepts the proposal. Once they arrive in Ellis Island they spend the quarantine period trying to pass the examinations to be admitted to the States. Tests are not so simple for poor farmers coming from Sicily. Their destiny is in the hands of the custom officers.

"Kon-Tiki" was the name of a wooden raft used by six Scandinavian scientists, led by Thor Heyerdahl, to make a 101-day journey from South America to the Polynesian Islands. The purpose of the expedition was to prove Heyerdal's theory that the Polynesian Islands were populated from the east- specifically Peru- rather than from the west (Asia) as had been the theory for hundreds of years. Heyerdahl made a study of the winds and tides in the Pacific, and by simulating conditions as closely as possible to those he theorized the Peruvians encountered, set out on the voyage.

Filmul spune povestea unei apreciate autoare care pleacă într-o călătorie alături de două vechi prietene ca să se distreze și să-și vindece niște răni. Nepotul ei li se alătură și se îndrăgostește de o tânără agentă literară.

„Planul meu era să mor înainte să rămân fără bani”, spune Frances Price, o femeie în vârstă de 60 de ani, o prezență importantă pe scena mondenă din Manhattan, care nu are niciun ban. Lucrurile nu au mers însă așa cum spera. Soțul ei, Franklin, e mort de 12 ani și cum moștenirea lui imensă a fost cheltuită, Frances își vinde toate bunurile și se hotărăște să-și trăiască ultima perioadă a vieții într-un apartament închiriat din Paris, împreună cu Malcolm, fiul ei lipsit de direcție, și o pisică pe nume Small Frank, care s-ar putea să fie posedată de spiritul soțului mort al lui Frances.