Lawrence White returns to the town of Owell Rock to avenge the murder of his father, but in order to carry out his plans, he changes his name and arranges for another man to pose as "Lawrence White."

Bologna, 1940s. A mentally troubled young man with literary aspirations falls deeply in love with an American army auxiliary after a simple glance. A year later, by an exceptional twist of fate, he finds himself living in the American Midwest, right next door but separated by a cursed garden from the elderly mother of …