We are at the end of the nineteenth century, and we arrive in Italy with an American tourist. Her name is Prudence, and she misses her homeland in New Hampshire, doesn't particularly like Italy, but meets an Italian, moves with him to the countryside and soon becomes a widow. What do we do now? We are left alone in a dilapidated Italian house, with a stubborn but charming and kind-hearted character. Prudence decides to take care of the family of her deceased partner: a handful of colorful and egotistical souls, who will not make her life easy. But Prudence's future and hopes are drained by one project: to plant a garden in her front yard. Welcome to a beautiful and rare literary work in its simplicity, by Constance Fenimore Wilson, who, in the words of Henry James, "carried the literary cleverness of the greats, and knows how to draw relationships between her characters as few succeed."