It is 1923, and Maria Vittoria is 25 when her father brings home the man who will become her husband. Taking just the linens she has sewn and a statue of the Madonna, Maria leaves the Italian mountain village where her family has lived for generations. But her future will not be what she imagines. This three-decade saga follows Maria over the next three decades, through the birth of five children, and the hardships of fascist rule and World War II. Warily, the family contends with watchful neighbors, and the Nazis and the Partisans who show up hungry at the door. As Maria's children grow up and her marriage endures its own hardships, she makes a fateful decision that will change the course of all their lives.