San Gottardo is first and foremost a film about emigration, the exodus brought about by the construction of the two tunnels - the railway tunnel (1872-1882) and the road tunnel (1969-1976). People migrated from one country to another, from one civilization to another, and different social mores and customs were confronted with one another. The film takes place between the unveiling of two monuments: it begins with the unveiling of the monument dedicated to the tunnel workers in Airolo, and it ends with the unveiling of the Escher monument on the Zurich Bahnhofstrasse. In between the two unveiling, the film depicts the essence of that which lay behind the veiling cloth.