Being born female earns Angela very little favour in her 19th century Sicilian mining village. Her father is bitterly open about his disappointment that his only child is a girl. Her withdrawn mother and aunt leave an absence of matriarchal role models in Angela's life. In spite of her family's indifference towards her, Angela spends her girlhood freely running along the rocky seashore, smoking tobacco with the boys and falling headlong in love with her best friend Sara. When she grows up and announces her wish to marry Sara, Angela is suddenly in a troubled spotlight as her family and neighbours reel at the news. After every attempt to overturn the relationship, from beatings to arranged marriages, the community finally accepts their young love on one condition—that Angela becomes Angelo and lives the rest of her life as a man. Both triumph and tribulation follow as Angela's transition reshapes the entire village. Sea Purple's plot is professedly based on real events that took place on an island near Sicily, events that were handed down by word of mouth over generations until they became something of an Italian queer legend. Director Donatella Maiorca named the film Sea Purple after a Mediterranean saltwater fish that is born female but can change into a male during the course of its life.