Elsa decides to buy a “pensione” and embarks on a new lifestyle in Naples

Set in the time of the Second World War, this book is a description as well as a look at the hard times caused in Italy by the Great Depression and then the rise of Mussolini to power. Elsa, the grandmother of the author, had not entertained any ideas of running an inn, but Mela talks her into it. When Elsa presents her case to her merchant husband Paul, whose business is quickly failing, he gives his permission, if not his blessing to buy the aging pensione. Thus begins a new life for Elsa and her family, with innuendoes about how the future will be for them in a war-torn Italy.