A gripping family saga set in a small village in central Italy.

In the autumn of 1920, Camilla is welcomed into the “Circle”, a meeting place reserved for women, where they can confide in each other, offer support, and find their own corner of freedom, in the name of the femininity that has always been a spark of life and a bond of sisterhood.

Camilla is a fragile and broken young woman when she enters the Circle. Supported by the memory of her mother and the strength of the women around her, she slowly finds the courage to face her past and heal from her wounds. As a midwife, Camilla moves on the border between life and death, welcoming new lives while everything around her is devastated by World War II. Within the Circle, she learns the ancient wisdom of natural remedies – a knowledge passed down through generations – and finds a new purpose in her life.

Years later, her daughter Viola, growing up amid the ruins of war and the promises of the postwar economic boom, is torn between her desire to study and her passion for a man who would instead like to relegate her to the role of mother and wife. Like her mother before her, Viola finds in the Circle the courage to choose for herself and understand that true love does not imprison, but liberates.

pp.420