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Caterina, played by Donatella Finocchiaro, is a schizophrenic whose life was ruined by an abusive childhood. She lives on the streets, and has stints in and out of mental health institutions to control her symptoms. Fabrizio (Raoul Bova) is mathematician who suffers from Asperger's syndrome. He has severely limited interaction with others, and is ruled by his obsessive compulsions (such as converting all monetary sums into their equivalents in foreign currency, and extremely precise timekeeping).

The two meet after receiving their depot doses of anti-psychotic medication and Caterina is charmed by his courteous nature, and falls in love. Unaware of his condition she perseveres in forging a relationship with him – a relationship which eventually proves to be impossible. The title reflects this, literally meaning 'the flame on the ice' – clearly a situation not meant to last.

Though an interesting idea unfortunately I felt the film was marred with constant interruption by drawn-out scenes expressing the protagonists' troubled subconscious. These are over-dramatic, whining and due very high decibel levels, sometimes physically quite painful to watch.