Margherita is a beautiful, bourgeois woman with a perfect life in Milan. When her father, a powerful politician, is accused of corruption and commits suicide in jail, Margherita's life changes completely. All the advantages and friends of her bourgeois life suddenly disappear, Milan becomes a hostile city.
Margherita takes the chance to escape and accepts to become an English teacher in a small town.
To stimulate her pupils' learning of the English language, she thinks up a fictitous letter correspondence with imaginary people. But her pupils post one of the mail, that ends up to an American dead man walking: George Middletown. A real letter correspondence starts and the class becomes, together with Amnesty International, a supporter of George's cause.
Margherita is again confident and begins a new life.