The Road to Destiny

Fourteen-year-old Sera (Serafino) escapes from his father’s drunken clutches. He runs into the streets where he goes to the defense of a young girl (Angie). Three youths are tormenting her while she thrashes at them with her roses. Angie and Sera discover they both come from fractured families. Angie is two years younger than Sera, but they become friends and spend most of their time on the streets together.

Four years later, they frolic down a street when a drunken man stumbles out of a bar and latches on to Angie. Sera cannot pry the man away. In desperation, he hits him over the head with an empty wine bottle. The man dies.

Sera is now eighteen years old, and a judge imprisons him for manslaughter. He is ashamed, so he does not answer Angie’s letters, or accept visits from his mother. In prison, he suffers abuse until befriended by an inmate who teaches him to play guitar. On his release, Sera becomes an itinerant musician. He plies his trade in bars and on the streets through France and Spain. He accepts his new life and does not return home.

While Sera is in Prison, a modeling agent ‘discovers’ Angie. She becomes a successful clothes model. Nineteen years later, while on assignment in the Parque del Buen Retiro in Madrid, Angie stops and listens to a busker. Later, when she finishes her work, the busker approaches her. He hands her a bouquet of roses, and she recognizes her childhood friend. Angie accompanies Sera to his performance in a bar that night, and agrees to travel with him to other gigs in Cordoba and Barcelona. She also invites him to go with her to her next assignment in Portofino. Their rollercoaster journey of rediscovery begins.

Their travel takes them to the Mesquite in Cordoba, the Alhambra in Granada, and progresses to Sera’s performance at Montjuic in Barcelona. They become lovers in Granada, and their relationship rekindles as they search for what might have been.

At Sera’s performance in Montjuic, friends from her modeling world surprise Angie. They are traveling to a party at Lake Como and offer Angie and Sera a ride to Italy. They travel across France, through Arles, Aix-en-Provence, Grasse, and Le Cap d’Antibes. Sera learns about Angie’s new life, and becomes disenchanted with her friends. While she has been her old self throughout their travel together, he is now surprised at how easily she reverts to her new life.

Their journey is now interspersed with angst while they battle to keep their growing relationship on track. Angie has accepted his new life, but Sera feels belittled her friends. He detests their pretentiousness, and their glamorous lifestyles. The unrest peaks at the party in Lake Como when Sera physically assaults a male friend of Angie’s.

After initial conflict, they overcome the issue when they cruise the lake the next day. They then leave for Angie’s assignment in Portofino. Their relationship reignites while they tour Santa Margherita and Camogli. However, Sera’s presence displeases Angie’s agent. While Angie is working, her agent initiates another chain of events when he insults Sera. Sera climbs to a lookout on top of a hill and reflects on events. As he looks over the Mediterranean Sea, it reminds him of the Bay of Naples. His time with Angie, and the view, makes him homesick. He leaves and returns to Naples.

In Naples, Sera reunites with his family. He now sees his parents in a different light. No longer is his father an ogre. A stroke has confined him to a wheelchair and he is feeble. Sera’s younger siblings have families of their own, and he pictures a life that might have been his if he had not stayed away. He settles down and performs on the streets and in bars of his hometown. Angie turns up at one of his performances and they reflect on the events that formed their journey. They conclude there is no reason they cannot have a relationship while they continue with their individual careers, and still enjoy the life Naples has to offer.