1955. Vivien Lowry's latest play, the only female-authored in London's West End that winter, opened to a rapturous reception from the audience. However, the critics' savage reviews have forced its closure and called into question her entire career. So, when then the opportunity arises for her to work as a script doctor on a film shooting in Rome's Cinecittà Studios, a world populated with the likes of Ava Gardner and Sophia Loren, she takes it. What Vivien doesn't count on is the greatest male bastion of them all: the Vatican.

Caught between church and censors, as well as two very different men, Vivien must also face the long-buried truth of the recent World War and what really happened to her fiancé if she's to deal with her past and step into the future.