Trigiani, Adriana

When Viola begrudgingly attends a boarding school in South Bend, Indiana, she avoids her new world by hiding behind a video camera. She eventually realizes that her new school, her roommates, and the Midwest are not so bad after all and opens herself up to the unique experiences lying before her.

The Angelini Shoe Company of Greenwich Village is near collapse. Determined to save her family's company, Valentine Roncalli accompanies her grandmother to Italy to learn new techniques and find unique materials. Then Valentine learns a family secret that turns her world upside down.

New York shoemaker Valentine Roncalli is at her grandmother's wedding in Tuscany when she learns that her brother has been made partner with her in the family business. Valentine escapes the drama by re-igniting her relationship with Gianluca. When Valentine takes a business trip to Buenos Aires, she discovers a family secret that threatens to destroy the Roncallis. Valentine struggles to keep the family together while debating her future with Gianluca.

Back home in Brooklyn, fifteen-year-old Viola has big summer plans but with one best friend going to camp and the other not only working but experiencing her first crush, Viola is glad to be overworked as an unpaid lighting intern when her grandmother's play goes to Broadway.

Nella Castelluca, daughter of Italian immigrants, lives on a farm outside Roseto, Pennsylvania, and dreams of living in town away from the hard life of her parents. Nella falls in love with the handsome poet Renato Lanzara, who suddenly leaves town and breaks Nella's heart. When he reappears four years later the night before Nella's wedding to another, Nella's life is forever changed.

In Big Stone Gap, Virginia, Ave Maria struggles to raise her independent teenage daughter who falls in love while visiting relatives in Italy.

Even though she is engaged, fashion designer Lucia Sartori falls in love with a good-looking stranger who promises her a life of luxury, and she almost destroys her Italian family ties.

Ave Maria's life gets complicated when her daughter leaves for Italy, she directs a musical, and she has a falling out with her friend Iva Lou.