The narrative opens at the Villa Dorio, a sprawling, ancient estate on the heights of Bellosguardo above Florence, where American expatriates gather on Saturday afternoons to enjoy the enchanting landscape and the society of their friends. Among the central figures are Mrs. Tracy, who leases the vast villa; Mrs. North, her widowed friend; and Dorothy, Mrs.
North’s bright, ethereal stepdaughter, who is surrounded by admirers. These include the athletic young Englishman Owen Charrington and the handsome, Florentine-raised Wadsworth Brunetti. Another frequent visitor is Alan Mackenzie, a quiet, middle-aged man whose polite exterior masks a deep, hopeless devotion to Dorothy.
As the winter approaches, Dorothy’s engagement to Alan Mackenzie surprises Florentine society, leading them to marry and move to the neighboring battlemented tower of Belmonte for the spring. While Dorothy continues her restless life of riding, walking, and being admired by her former suitors, Mackenzie remains quietly devoted to her, finding complete fulfillment in a love she accepts with youthful lightheartedness rather than deep passion.
Tragedy strikes during a winter stay in Rome, where Mackenzie falls ill and dies suddenly, leaving his young widow a vast fortune and a grief she is too young to fully comprehend. Dorothy returns to Bellosguardo, where her restless wandering through the garden and rooms reflects her inner torment and awakening realization of how much she truly loved her husband. Despite the efforts of her mother and her aunt to distract her with travel to Cannes and Paris, she is inexorably drawn back to the scene of her brief marriage.
The final months of Dorothy's life are marked by a silent, consuming sorrow and physical decline. Surrounded by the gentle ministrations of her friends and her devoted family, she sings softly in the moonlight, longing only to tell her husband once that she loved him before passing away quietly in her sleep.
