In August 1978, a miracle happened to six-year-old Alice, although she did not realize it immediately. An elegant, slightly eccentric artist, Irene, who left Sicily for Rome a long time ago, appeared on the threshold of her parents' house. And one short conversation between an adult woman and a six-year-old girl changed the lives of both.Twelve years later, Alice finds out that Irene gave her a priceless gift before her death — the opportunity to fulfill her childhood dream of becoming an actress — and goes to Rome. An apartment haunted by the ghosts of the past; a door locked long ago; amazing paintings kept under lock and key for many years; a diary with a story about happiness and tragedy... Alice undertakes to investigate the mysterious love story of Irene, an artist who gave up painting many years ago, and in her journey she will find friends, survive dangerous encounters and, perhaps, discover herself. And in the finale, she will have a revelation that will turn her life around again.Ferzan Ozpetek, a brilliant Turkish-Italian cinematographer ("The Window Opposite", "The Presence of Splendor", "Fasten your Seat Belts"), author of best-selling books highly appreciated by critics and loved by the public, wrote an elegant novel about the death of passion and the beginning of a new life. Here the love story turns into a detective story. There will be missed chances and accidental luck, and happiness, and a broken heart, and secrets, and unexpected solutions. But most of all there will be hope.For the first time in Russian!