A love story set in July '43 when Allied forces landed in Sicily. Arturo loves Flora, daughter of a restaurant owner, but she has been promised in marriage to a Mafia boss. Arturo decides to join the Allied forces and return to Sicily, which he had left in search of fortune in America. In the background a clever narrative of how relations between Allies and the Mafia during World War II shaped the fate of Sicily in years to come.

Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet, is exiled to a small island for political reasons. On the island, the unemployed son of a poor fisherman is hired as an extra postman due to the huge increase in mail that this causes. Il Postino is to hand-deliver the celebrity's mail to him. Though poorly educated, the postman learns to love poetry and eventually befriends Neruda. Struggling to grow and express himself more fully, he suddenly falls in love and needs Neruda's help and guidance more than ever. Written by Tad Dibbern DIBBERN_D@a1.mscf.upenn.edu