Orlando is a painter with a cantankerous character and a soul in tumult, he is already more than fifty years old, he feels old and with no possibility of new stimulus, of new inspiration. A proud man and an "unrepentant imperialist" as he loves to define himself, for some time he has seen life flowing through his fingers like sand and had no idea of how to get it back. Elvira is a young woman disappointed by destiny, mostly sentimental. Suddenly abandoned by her boyfriend she feels betrayed and her soul emptied. Padre Alfonso is a strange priest: undisciplined, non-conformist he loves to graze souls and when the occasion arises have them meet. Orlando has been commissioned to do a work and he has Elvira as the subject to inspire the basis of something that could return soul and joy of two people who believe to have lost them irredeemably.
Mysterious is the heart (Misterioso è il cuore) received a special mention for the Vico Sul Gargano Prize for Short Novels 2008. la menzione di merito Premio Vico Sul Gargano – Romanzi Brevi 2008
Also contains the story Hearts on the Network, which received a prize at Stories on the Network –2003