This three generation saga begins in June 1944 when a young British officer, Robert Lonsdale, heir to banker sir George Lonsadale, is wounded as Allied forces are chasing a retreating enemy across Tuscany, near the Castello of his aunt, English born Contessa Lydia San Germano, and helped to safety by attractive 18 year old Rosa, an orphaned peasant girl from Southern Italy who works for her. Robert and she fall in love and plan to marry but, due to the war and a series of events and mishaps, that will only take place 30 years later when this first part of the saga ends. The action moves between Tuscany, London, Warwickshire, New York and Rome, and tells of the joys and tragedies of a woman whom fate both cuddles and flays, of the men who love her, of her sons, of the castello in the Chianti hills where everything started, and which finally becomes hers.