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Two pairs of Mormon missionaries from America live in a beaten-up apartment in the Dutch city of Haarlem. Their personalities are distinctly different. Appropriately, the most responsible one, Elder Johnson, is the District Leader and oversees their efforts. His companion, the vain Elder Van Pelt, seeks to become the assistant to the mission president (the top post available) as soon as possible, and he receives letters from three girlfriends he left behind. The capable Elder Rogers has become disillusioned and inattentive to his duties ever since a previous missionary companion returned to America, looked up and married Elder Rogers' girlfriend. As a result he is simply marking time until he returns home in a few weeks time. The three meet Elder Rogers' new companion, Elder Calhoun, in the train station. This new elder is a nerdy but enthusiastic "greenie" that has just arrived from the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Utah. Unfortunately his training did not give him much fluency in the Dutch language, but as luck would have it, the first person he approaches to proselytize is a fellow American named Kyle. In the weeks that come, Elder Johnson and Van Pelt increasingly irritate each other while in contrast Elder Rogers and Calhoun begin to relate in a positive fashion as they teach Kyle about the Mormon faith.

In today's modern world, when almost everything is done with the touch of a button, the citizens of the Cinque Terre of Italy still make Sciacchetra wine by hand, as their ancestors have done for over 1000 years. They also welcome over three million tourists annually into their homes, restaurants, and shops, something their ancestors could have never foreseen. A modern-day fight for sustainable tourism, cultural preservation, and environmental balance teeters on the edge of survival as the villages face an uncertainty marked by political change, natural disaster, and conflicting goals. Vendemmia documents the present day challenges of the Cinque Terre through both the eyes of its extraordinary residents and also those standing on the outside, anxiously observing the area's rapid fire transformation, and asks the essential question - Is it possible to preserve the future without sacrificing the past?