PLOT

Francesca is a spirited, strong-willed working class woman. Both her father and grand-father were pasta makers before her and, following in the family tradition, she too has become the owner of a flourishing pasta-making factory. For love she has married Prince Giordano Montorsi. The couple adopt a little girl named Nunziatina with whom Francesca gradually establishes a deep and intimate relationship, consolidated by the fact that the young girl is the only one of the Montorsi children to join her in the business. After a few years, their eldest son Federico returns from his studies in London and he and Nunziata fall in love. In the meantime, Francesca and Giordano are going through a difficult moment in their marriage, due to certain detrimental business initiatives undertaken by Giordano which are threatening to bring about the family’s financial ruin. Francesca, in an attempt to save the business, arranges for Federico to marry the daughter of a wealthy shipbuilder. Then, when she learns that Nunziata is pregnant, she forces the girl into a quick marriage with a nondescript accountant. The years go by. Nunziata, from nothing, has succeeded in setting up her own pasta-making business, while Francesca, despite Federico’s marriage, has been forced, little by little, to sell off her own company. In a final discussion between the two women, Francesca admits her mistakes and re-establishes the bond of affection that ties her to Nunziata even more strongly than to her natural offspring. And, seeing Nunziata as her one and only true moral heir, she urges the younger woman to purchase Villa Montorsi. (Enrico Lancia)
Story: taken from the novel of the same name by Maria Orsini Natale.