Alessandro Manzoni is the first and most important Italian novelist, who lived from 1785 to 1873.
Vittoria and Matilde were the last two of Manzoni's nine children. This film tells the story of a very particular period in their life (1847-1856).
Matilde comes back her father's house in Milan after having spent the last five years of her life in a college of cloistered nuns. The family who welcomes Matilde is composed of: Grandfather Niccolao Giorgini, Prime Minister; Father Gaetano and Giovanbattista Giorgini, known as "Bista", Vittoria's husband and professor at the University of Parma.
In March 1848, King Carlo Alberto has conceded Piedmont its own Statute. The 18th of the same month a rebellion against the Austrians explodes in Milan. The tension spreads, inflaming the patriotic sentiments of the Italians.
The University battalions, headed by professor "Bista", will block the Austrians and they will be greeted as heroes on their return.
Life returns to normal and Matilde will be introduced to Luigi Spadoni, an fascinating and handsome engineer known as a "ladies' man". Matilde accepts from Spadoni an invitation to Leghorn and on the way back he will try to kiss her but she will refuse him. As a consequence of this refusal he will disappear from her life while in Matilde's heart will born a deep sentimental feeling.
Meanwhile the famous Alessandro Manzoni arrives to see his daughters and will stay only twenty days. His formal and distant attitude will hurt Matilde. The first real crisis of the illness which has taken root inside her, comes just a few days after her father leaves. Matilde recovers quickly but when she hears that Spadoni has married an aristocrat from Leghor, she begins to write obsessively to her father, feeling unconsciously that she has not much time left. Everyone visits her except her father. Her daughter's love has been constantly rejected and this is the real illness which has consumed her.