Ekphrasis is a fragmentary and non-chronological history of South Tyrol, a territory contested between Italy and Austria. The film takes its cues from the events between 1939 and 1943, when the native German-speaking people of South Tyrol were given the option of either emigrating to neighbouring Nazi Austria (and other Third Reich territories) or remaining in Fascist Italy and being forcibly integrated into the mainstream Italian culture, thereby losing their language and cultural heritage. This system, enforced after an agreement between Mussolini and Hitler, was called the "Option Agreement". The film also evokes the aftermath of the Option Agreement, including episodes of tension, conflict and terrorism between ethnic communities.