
Fortysomething wife and mother Molly Pargeter leads a stable but dull life in 1980s West London. She feels overweight and there is no passion in her relationship with her husband Hugh, who is secretly seeing another woman. For most of her life, Molly has found escape in detective novels and art books, especially on 15th-century Italian fresco painter Piero Della Francesca. Suddenly, in the small ads, she spots the details of a Tuscany villa to let, and after a viewing, she takes it for holiday.

Housewife Molly Pargeter arranges for her family to travel to a Tuscany summer rental, where she meets a variety of eccentric locals but is most fascinated by Chrissie and Buck Kettering, who own the villa.

La Felicita is hit by a water shortage, forcing the Pargeters to shack up with the Ketterings.