Stella Costa’s mother sends her to a Tuscan house with distant relatives while Allied bombers deluge Torino in the autumn of 1942. There, Stella discovers that her family has been given a huge task: keeping approximately 300 precious works of art, including Botticelli’s well-known Primavera, hidden from Florence.

Stella finds herself a stranger in her family’s villa as German troops approach, and she finds it difficult to comprehend her aunt’s dislike for her. She is aware that it has something to do with her parents, specifically the fact that her father has been largely gone from her life due to his present battle at the front.