From the time Cary Lawson steps off the ship in Spain, she feels that she belongs in Europe, that through this new experience she will be able to come to terms with her true self and become a person in her own right. As spectator and involuntary participant in the dramatic events taking place in the late 1960s in Italy, Cary is caught up in the problematic day to day lives of her friends and her lover, Gianni. She slowly discovers that beside the beauty of the country and the lovely language she learns to speak, there is a dark side as well. Cary's new certainties become uncertainties again when her world is turned upside down and she has to draw on all her inner resources to deal with an unexpected and tragic situation.