Outwardly they are the perfect couple: the 46-year-old Filippo with his large, smoke-grey eyes, member of one of Florence's most highly regarded patrician families, and the very young and completely inexperienced Francesca, as beautiful as a Leonardo da Vinci angel. Francesca believes that she has found the prince of her dreams, but as soon as they are married, Filippo seems to lose interest in her amongst his ever more frequent business trips to far-away London. Francesca feels she has been buried alive in their ancient Florentine house. After the birth of her son Cosimo, she falls into one depression after the other, and the only advice she receives from Filippo's family is that she should visit a sanatorium. Francesca loses faith in herself – after all, who else's fault can it be that her husband spends hardly any time in her presence? Then, one day, she makes a discovery that explains so much, but which only makes things all the more complicated.