In 1933, Bella Stuart leaves a restricted life in London to head for Italy and become a tutor for the wealthy Lami family. Her pupil, Alec, is the "not quite right" child of a beautiful Jewish heiress and an elderly Italian aristocrat. When Alec's father dies, Signora Lami sends him to live at the family's summer residence in Bordighera, to be cared for by Bella and Maestro Edward, his reserved and enigmatic music teacher. These three misfits find unexpected solace in each other's company. As the decade draws to an end and fascism begins to take an ominous hold over Europe, Bella and Edward are eventually forced to flee Mussolini's Italy: to protect themselves and the little boy they have come to love.