February 10, 1986: the "Maxi-trial" against Cosa Nostra begins. For the first time, more than 400 mafiosi are called to answer for dozens of crimes, in a huge courtroom built for the occasion. Italian State television network RAI also mobilises, with a special editorial staff that will be solely dedicated to follow the events in the bunker courtroom, which everyone calls "the green spaceship". The troupe is led by Franco Licitra, a 50-years-old news veteran from Palermo's RAI editorial staff, who knows very well Mafia and its phenomena. Along with him, we'll see the young Roman TV operator Gianni, who came to reinforce the Sicilian staff, and Teresa, a young Sicilian newly-hired and passionate TV editor. The very first days see the Court still taking the measures of this enormous trial, between bureaucratic procedures and organisational slowness, while the defence lawyers base their initial strategy exploiting all the potential faults of this juridic machine. Among them Federico Marsalis, a lawyer from Palermo that defences some of the mafiosi on trial. Meanwhile, the mobsters growl from their cages: the old boss Luciano Liggio tries to upset the judges with his attitude, while "pentito" Salvatore Di Marco threatens to retract his deposition. But just ten days after the beginning of the trial, a news arrives: Michele Greco, known as "The Pope" and head of the Cupola (Mafia's main council of the bosses), is arrested and will be trialled among other bosses.

After the arrest of Michele Greco, the big bosses who have been controlling Palermo for years begin to show up in the courtroom. The first one is Pippo Calò, known as "the Mafia's Cashier": he is the first to defend himself against contesting the accusations of Tommaso Buscetta, "the Boss of the Two Worlds" and the trial's most awaited protagonist. His deposition (April 3, 1986) is a key moment of the trail, expected with bated breath by all protagonists - starting with the popular judges, among which there is Filomena, a 60-year-old teacher who lives the process with particular apprehension. Meanwhile, Gianni is slowly settling in Palermo, and is happy with his work. Teresa, on the other hand, seems always worried, her head elsewhere. To better tell the horrors of which Mafia is capable, Franco brings Gianni to Corleone to realise a TV service about the fiefdom of the last two great fugitive bosses, Totò Riina and Bernardo Provenzano. During the trial, Buscetta's statements open a gash in Cosa Nostra secrets, and the process seems to take a turn in favour of the prosecutors. All defence lawyers, including Marsalis, decide to change their strategy: he discloses to Franco that they will challenge directly Buscetta in court, by asking a direct confrontation with him. But Franco also has other things to think about, because of an unexpected postcard from Corleone found in his car.

April 10, 1986: it's the day of the confrontation between Pippo Calò and Tommaso Buscetta, the most awaited and most heated moment of the whole debate. The two bosses eventually come face to face, accusing each other of the most heinous crimes: Calò accuses his former friend of being unreliable, focusing on his marital infidelities; Buscetta reacts by emphasising Calò's contradictions, and blaming him for the disappearance of his two sons. Then, Buscetta abruptly speaks of a homicide cold case, of which he claims Calò is responsible. It is a theatrical duel, a clash between two "men of honour" who grew up together, and who were later divided by the ferocity of the Corleonesi family: Calò went over to their side, while Buscetta was forced to run away. The whole room captures the importance of the moment, and the trial lives one of its decisive days. Franco talks about the confrontation in the news, even if his life is shrouded in anxiety and concern - the same feelings that envelop the courtroom in the following days, when another "pentito", Salvatore Contorno, faces the judges. With his intervention in strict Sicilian dialect, dotted with a colourful language and a lot of anger in his words, Contorno reveals the background of various heinous crimes, and tells the details of the failed murder attempt against him. In response, the defence lawyers try in every way to prove his unreliability and to embarrass the prosecutors, and are ready to use every opportunity to interrupt the trial.

Many months have passed since the Palermo maxi-trial began. Prosecutors and defence attorneys face each other every day, while those who made the criminal history of the city and of Sicily make their appearance on the green carpet of the bunker courtroom. The atmosphere is always very tense, more so after the killing of Nino D'Uva, a lawyer from Messina killed during another Mafia-related trial. This episode contributes to raise the tension and concern of the defence lawyers, who see their hopes of overthrowing the trial fade. The prosecution front keeps his stance strong, and the statements from some of the most prominent defendant, such as Michele Greco and Luciano Liggio, fail to change the course of things. Franco keeps doing his job with passion and professionalism, despite the difficulties and the torments. Gianni on the contrary lives a difficult moment, deeply shocked and disturbed by "pentito" Vincenzo Sinagra tales of Mafia's "death chambers", and pressed by his fiancee to go back home and leave the job. Teresa takes courage to face her mother Filomena, who's one of the popular judges, and to ask her to step down for her own sake. The trial is becoming more and more the symbol of the wounds and of the desire of redemption of the city of Palermo, more so with the deposition of Mafia's tax collector Ignazio Salvo, one of the most powerful links between the criminal organisation and politics: his arrival in court dramatically symbolises how the caste of "untouchables" in Palermo no longer exist.

The coming of summer in Palermo is always seen as a liberation, but Sirocco wind and the unfolding of the maxi-trial make the summer of 1986 a very different one to live. In the courtroom, after five months of trial, hundreds of mafiosi (from the big bosses to the picciotti) have already made their appearance. It is hard to keep track of all of the stories, which RAI journalists continue to produce every day, albeit with mixed feelings. Teresa seems to have found her smile again, after acknowledging her mother's reasons to stay as a judge, while Gianni is on the verge of leaving the staff, deciding eventually otherwise (with some help from his colleagues). These are also the days of the depositions of the relatives of the victims: from General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa's family to that of the Head of Police Mobile Squad Boris Giuliano, from the omertose widows of Mafia's excellent victims to the desperate mothers and the reticent witnesses. In the days when Palermo devotes itself to Saint Rosalia, women take the scene: the process lives its days of strongest emotions, thanks to the dignity of Antonia Setti Carraro (mother of Emanuela Setti Carraro, General Dalla Chiesa's wife), and to the anger of Vita Rugnetta, mother of a picciotto killed during the Second Mafia War (the so called "Mattanza"). Then, in the autumn of 1986, the death of an innocent 10-years-old child and the popular reaction to it seems to upset the balance between prosecutors and defence again, with lawyers ready to play their last trump card.

Almost two years have passed since the beginning of the debate, and the maxi-trial is about to arrive at its closing. Two long years in which Palermo lived in a suspended limbo of hope and concern. The process went through different ups and downs and RAI journalists have come to terms with the long and cumbersome procedures of such a large trial, with its 349 hearings, 635 defensive speeches and a 12-days-long statement from prosecutors. Franco, Teresa and Gianni relive their emotions and memories of the trial on the eve of the sentence, before entering the bunker court and waiting for the Court for the last time. It's December 16, 1987: the courtroom fills up again with journalists from every country, relatives of the victims, defendants on the loose. All together, they listen to the verdict: after a two-hours-long reading, 19 life sentences and 2,665 total years of prison are adjudicate to 360 of the 474 defendants. It is a victory for prosecutors who see their accusatory system hold up, and a major defeat for Cosa Nostra, which for the first time sees its most important bosses jailed and the very existence of the organisation eventually recognised in court. Franco lives the end of the process with satisfaction and participation, with hints of his distinctive Sicilian fatalism. The next day, he has a last very important appointment: an interview with judge Giovanni Falcone.