This gentle Italian children's drama is set in 1943 and tells the true tale of Mathilde, a 13-year-old girl who meets Italy's King just before the US Army invaded Rome. During that fateful summer Mathilde and Beatrice, her mother, head out to the country estate of her grandfather, the Count. Though Mathilde's father, a sailor, died many years before, she has never fully accepted this and hopes he will come back. The Count's home is a flurry of activity as the whole house prepares for the wedding of Maria, a very pregnant maid, and Tonio; unfortunately, the wedding is abruptly canceled when Italy's royal leaders and what's left of the government show up. All of them are fleeing the country, abandoning their own people, before the Germans take over completely. To protect the servants, the Count has them all locked in the attic, forcing Mathilde and Beatrice to act as hostesses. Beatrice finds renewed love with one of the entourage, the handsome Major Ferri, the man who could be Mathilde's real father. Mathilde doesn't know this and the thought of this man with her mother is torture. Later, she speaks with the cowardly King who proves to be more of a tragic figure than one worthy of contempt.