A beautiful house on the lake.

The sun pours through the windows, taking us with it. Accompanied by the gentle voice of a woman, we slip inside, gliding through the corridors… until we get to a room…

Inside is a mother surrounded by her family, her children around her in search of advice. Yet she is a special mother, a “fairy-tale” mother, who has a very unique way of raising her children. She is a mother with a secret.

The voice belongs to Anna Della Rosa. Guido Borghi, her husband, and their four children (Francesca, Jacopo, Sole and little Michele), have had to get used to her special, silent presence in that big house.

The Borghis aren’t a regular family – they’re a special family, with a special story…

The voice of Anna narrates as we discover the story, starting with the arrival of an “intruder”, Agata, who is fleeing from a troubled past and wants to find out the truth about her mother, Maurizia. Agata has found a mysterious photograph of Maurizia with Anna.

Maurizia has been missing for a while and there’s been no sign of her at all, but Agata’s presence threatens to unearth long-buried secrets.

Will Agata find what she’s looking for? Or will she find the family she never had?

And what happened to Maurizia?

Another person interested in the truth about Maurizia is Deputy Police Commissioner Colaprico, who is convinced that Guido is the guilty party. Colaprico will grow closer to Agata, attempting to convince her to help him to incriminate all the Borghis once and for all.

But Maurizia’s fate isn’t the only mystery. What really happened to Anna? To find out, the series will take us back in time into the family’s past.

Villa della Rosa, a stunning villa on Lake Bracciano, is an extraordinary place. It’s a place where memories mix and mingle – the place where everything began. It was there, on the banks of the lake, that Guido asked Anna to spend her life with him. He and Anna were madly in love, and in the past we see them stand together through crises, rebirths and more…

The series takes us forward and back through time to tell us the stories of each protagonist – their moments of happiness and pain, the challenges that come with growing up and the reality of sometimes having to go backwards to go forwards.

Guido finds himself re-evaluating his love for Anna, as he realises that you never stop learning how to be a father.

A meeting with a new colleague at the school where Guido is the headmaster will finally force him to confront his demons. Miriam, a woman who knows suffering, will provide him with support and could even offer a way for him to make peace with it all – even his wife.

Francesca – the 21-year-old daughter – is perennially caught between her dreams and her obligations. As the eldest daughter, her mother’s accident meant that she has had to take care of the family, but she needs to rediscover her true spirit. She is about to get married to her long-term partner, Piggi, when she meets a beguiling young man, Armando, who makes her feel new things and could even lead her to choose a new direction.

Jacopo, a rebellious teenager, is struggling with the absence of his mother, whom he had a special relationship with. He’s constantly at loggerheads with his father, whom he is more alike to than he thinks. An unexpected meeting with Greta, a girl in a wheelchair, will see him open up to life and love once again.

16-year-old Sole is Guido’s favourite. An extremely smart girl, she’s the perfect daughter with a bright future ahead of her, but an unexpected event could see her change course. She has to grow up more quickly than she should after tasting love for the first time. The choice between her old friend, Greg, and her first real crush, Federico, will prove to be harder than she expects.

Last but not least comes Michele, the youngest. A sweet, quirky boy, he brings a sense of innocence to the family and to the series as a whole.

Then there is Anna’s family – her parents, and in particular her mother, Lucrezia. The relationship with Anna’s parents is always conflicted.

However, the Borghis must often rely on them for financial support.

Lucrezia is the “queen” of Bracciano and the most well-known person in the village. Her dream was for Anna to take her place, but her daughter opted for a different direction. At the age of 18, she moved to Rome to pursue her dream of becoming a photographer and get away from her family. Anna’s parents never really loved each other. Filippo, her father, married Lucrezia to advance his social standing rather than for any real sense of love, becoming a “prince consort” in the process.

When, for the good of the family, Anna returns to the village – to Villa della Rosa – with Guido and their children, she is forced to have contact with her mother again. The relationship continues to be difficult, but it will undergo some unexpected developments over the course of the series.

On the other side is Guido’s family, most notably his father Elio, who is hiding a secret from his son’s past.

A man of humble origins, with involvement in some dodgy dealings, Elio has always believed that Guido was destined to follow in his footsteps. Guido, on the other hand, has loftier ambitions. Thanks to Anna and her constant support, he’s pursued his dreams all the way, a decision that has kept him in constant conflict with his father.

Guido’s relationship with Elio is even more complicated. Guido has had to get him involved in mysterious matters from his past – and Elio could come to represent a real threat to the family’s survival.

The Borghis’ family affairs lead us into surprising situations and unexpected meetings… into the inner workings of a family whose beating heart continues to be Anna.