"Elisabetta, Marco, and Sandro grow up as best friends, despite their differences. Elisabetta is a feisty beauty who dreams of becoing a novelist, Marco a handsome cyclist with a secret, and Sandro a Jewish mathematics prodigy. Soon their friendship ripens to romance, and Marco and Sandro vie to win Elisabetta. Meanwhile war threatens the world, and Mussolini leads Italy down a dark path. Harsh restrictions against Italian Jews take legal root, blocking Sandro from finishing his studies. Marco, who works at the local Fascist office, fears that his party is destroying his best friend, but his loyalty is torn. Caught in the middle, Elisabetta struggles to survive as her life crumbles around her. Then the Nazis invade Rome, and a shocking historical event decides the fate of the threesome, once and for all."--Page 4 of cover.