During WWII, widowed thirty-something Cesira, a grocer in Rome, devotes herself to her innocent thirteen year old daughter, Rosetta, sometimes at the expense of finding love for herself, she knowingly still a desirable woman. She can probably admit to herself that she never really loved her older husband. It is to protect emotionally and physically fragile Rosetta that Cesira decides for them to escape the bombing in Rome for her small hometown of Sant'Eufemia for the duration of the war. Soon after their arrival, Cesira discovers that she can't escape the war or its effects, not only the result of the struggles she and her fellow villagers have in the basics such as putting food on the table, but that the village is still in the center of the war in that it is occupied by the Nazis, Allied planes fly over targeting the Nazis with the innocent seemingly acceptable collateral damage, and even that British spies are among their midst. Despite their differences in he focusing on his political ideology while she focuses on the issue of the basics of her and Rosetta's lives, twenty-five year old intellectual Michele Di Libero, an anti-fascist, falls in love with Cesira. Cesira, in turn, does return some feelings for him despite the differences in their ages, partly in that Rosetta has formed a bond with him. In light of this situation, Cesira will end up making some fateful decisions that will forever affect her and Rosetta's lives and their relationship.—Huggo