Harsh and imposing like the Dolomites, smooth and fragile like the paths unwinding through the Sciliar Highland, Martha mirrors the ancient mountain environment with its traditions, tales and scented herbs, but also hard work and loneliness. Martha lives in Castelrotto, a neat, pretty village in Alto Adige, where she soon realises she is an outsider, being unable to follow the rules established by others. She therefore begins a long and difficult quest for her own identity confronting herself, her village and her family with the same firmness she shows when she takes her long walks in the mountains. She carries on her shoulders, together with her rucksack, the burden of the suffering of all those women who, before her, have tried to break free from that cage made of stone, with meadows and flower vases outside the windows. In the sun Martha draws on the grass to stop her anxiety. She outlines colourful shields to protect herself. She dances around the bonfire and tells stories of fairies and dwarfs. She gets rid of everything: clothes and fears. Her fellow villagers name all this "Martha's disease", but the young woman, who wanted to wear trousers, will discover magic in the end. "I am a witch", and who cares if nobody believes it.