Mark's life is like one big sunny plain. A well-paying stockbroker job, a beautiful London home, a placid and long-lasting relationship with Susan, and the prospect of a career downhill. His is a perfectly planned life. He doesn't remember a single uphill step, not even when he started walking. But one day, a black veil envelops everything and his confidence shatters like glass. Encouraged by a friend, Mark decides to take a break and moves to Italy, to a small and quiet town in Piedmont with dreamy landscapes and, above all, many slopes. It will not be the only change in his life: Black, a young black Labrador retriever full of energy, drags Mark along on adventures that reconnect him with nature and allow him to discover that the exhaustion of running uphill gives him a joy never felt before.