Journalist Allyn Crosbie, who travels the globe to write about the esoteric world of opera, comes to central Italy in pursuit of a quick story about a production that's in danger of falling apart. In the ancient city of Perugia, she becomes entangled with the lives of Elaine Bishop, a brilliantly inventive stage director who's trying to save the production, and Vincent Norrie, a composer battling a life-threatening illness, who's struggling to complete his first operatic score. The three of them join forces to prevent an ill-intentioned librettist from sabotaging Elaine's premiere, but they are distracted by the mysteries of the city -- and by one another.