Recently widowed and anxious to escape the clutches of her oppressively meddlesome in-laws, free-spirited Lilia Herriton travels to the hillside Tuscan town of Monteriano with her young friend Caroline Abbott. There she falls in love with both the countryside and Gino Carella, a handsome man considerably younger and much less wealthy than herself, and she decides to stay. Appalled by her behaviour and concerned about the future of her granddaughter, Irma, her strait-laced mother-in-law dispatches her son Philip to Italy to convince her to return home, but by the time he arrives Lilia and Gino have wed. He and Caroline return home, unable to forgive themselves for not putting an end to what they see as a clearly unsuitable marriage.