Just as the lovely Alvina Houghton comes of age, her widowed father's business starts to dry up. In a drastic effort to regain his fortune and secure his daughter's standing in society, James Houghton buys, of all things, a theater. Her father's plans and dreams go misunderstood in the town, but the theater itself does quite well.for a time. One of the traveling players employed at the theater, a sensual Italian man named Ciccio, catches Alvina's eye, and she finds herself intensely attracted to him.
Now lovers, Alvina and Ciccio flee the safety and mediocrity of her hometown in order to get married and start a life together in Naples. With the first whisperings of World War I in the background of their new Italian home, Alvina must contend with this new relationship and come to terms with what might be only a fleeting time of freedom.