 Lucca, Tuscany. A young woman is driving at high speed through the streets of the city. On a sharp bend she starts to overtake - she hesitates for a split-second - but it s too late. Her tiny car crashes straight into a lorry coming in the opposite direction. Shortly afterwards Chiara, an attractive woman in the prime of life, is watching a film report of the dramatic accident on television when she is suddenly gripped by the anxiety that the accident victim could actually be her daughter. After several phone calls and tortuously long hours of waiting Chiara finally realises that her worst fears have come true. She goes cold with horror when she sees her daughter Gianna lying there in the hospital: the young woman is very seriously injured and in a coma. From this moment on, Chiara s entire life is shattered. Her boyfriend Giulio, a famous lawyer, tries to reassure her without success. Chiara becomes aware for the first time how estranged she has become from her own daughter ever since Gianna moved out of the house several years previously. Racked by guilt, Chiara now decides to discover more about her daughter s life. It comes as a huge shock to Chiara when she hears from a close friend of Gianna s that her daughter had married without her knowledge, and that after the wedding to Alec, a young sensitive musician, she realised that she would never be able to have any children. Chiara also finds out that Gianna, driven by her desire to have children, had made use of the most recent medical advances in this sector - by applying for artificially insemination. After that she had wanted to ask her mother - her nearest relative - to bear her child to the full term. Chiara is utterly horrified! But once she s recovered from her initial shock she starts considering how she can fulfil her daughter s last request. She asks Giulio for advice, but he doesn t feel up to giving her an opinion either. In his helplessness he even proposes marriage to Chiara without realising the bad timimg. Chiara spends the weeks that follow at her daughter s bedside. The doctors are hoping that her closeness and warmth will help Gianna recover. At the hospital Chiara also gets to meet Gianna s husband, Alec. But like Giulio, the young man is not in a position to make Chiara s decision about the wished-for child any easier. As a result of her daughter s unusual request, Chiara is torn this way and that between feelings of sympathy, responsibility and helplessness. Eventually she visits Gianna s gynaecologist, Professor Guidi, who was responsible for the artificial insemination and has preserved the ovum via a special method. Quite candidly he outlines the risks to Chiara of surrogate motherhood at her age. Nevertheless, after a lot of consideration, Chiara s feelings finally win out. For her daughter s sake Chiara makes the decision to brave the dangers and to bear her daughter s child to the full term. After the operation, Chiara goes to see her daughter again. At Gianna s bedside she holds her daughter s limp hand in a tender effort to summon her back to life. This desperate cry for help actually seems to reach her unconscious daughter. In astonishment, Chiara sees Gianna give a weak yet unmistakeable sign of life... Gianna has awoken from her coma, and is now on the road to recovery. When she is finally released from hospital, still rather unsteady on her legs, Chiara is beside herself with joy. Gianna accepts her suggestion that she should stay at her house with Alec for the time being. So far mother and daughter have not exchanged a word about Chiara s pregnancy. It is only when Chiara learns from Professor Guidi a short while later that she is definitely pregnant that she feels prepared to reveal the truth to her daughter. Gianna, deeply moved, bursts into tears. However, the new life Chiara is carrying within her soon results in conflict. Giulio sees the strange child as a threat to his male pride. Chiara is forced to look on helplessly as the gulf between them starts to grow ever wider. Chiara thus turns now for comfort to Gianna, who is following the course of her mother s pregnancy closely. But despite Gianna s efforts it soon becomes obvious that she s not up to the role. Tempers finally fray when Alec puts his hand on his mother-in-law s belly one evening to feel his child moving. Gianna reacts to this intimate gesture with a sudden outburst of jealousy. She s no longer the loving daughter, but a mistrustful and deeply injured young woman, and she accuses her mother of making too much of a fuss about her pregnancy and even of cheating her out of her child. Gianna s desire for children underwent an involuntary change after her near-death experience. Gianna admits to her husband that having a baby is not as important to her now. She finally decides to move out of Chiara s house, although she knows how hard a blow this will be for her mother. Meanwhile even Chiara is starting to have doubts about whether deciding to have her daughter s baby was the right thing after all. She s all on her own now, abandoned by everyone, though she does respect Gianna s desire for isolation. When Chiara suddenly suffers agonising cramps one evening, in her loneliness she rings Gianna, who follows her to the hospital. Once there, mother and daughter are both horrified to learn that Chiara had almost lost the child. This shock reawakens the memory in Chiara of her own pregnancy years beforehand, when after her boyfriend s sudden departure she had to make the decision to have the baby all by herself. This gives Chiara renewed courage. She realises just how deeply indebted she is to her daughter. In Chiara s house the two women clear matters up in a candid conversation, talking about Gianna s father for the first time, who was missed by his child her whole life long. Mother and daughter smile at one another. They ve come a long way, and have had to go through a great deal in order to prove their affection for one another. But both of them now feel that together they are more than strong enough to chase away the shadows of the past. Together, they look forward to the birth of their common child.