Serena, Principessa di San Tibaldo has lost her family and her home to Mussolini's fascists, but when she meets American Major Brad Fullerton after the war her dejection is transformed to contentment After his death she becomes a top model, and marries a second time, shadowing the destinies of her two daughters, and dying before they grow up Separated in childhood, and brought together by love, the sisters must free themselves of the past before their future can be assured