Forced back to her remote hometown by the war Giulia is immediately drawn to a couple in a similar situation: graceful spontaneous Ada and her husband Paolo a sickly teacher and partisan in hiding. Joined from Turin by Giulia's husband Stefano the two couples form an intense bond; as the Germans begin to occupy Italy a subtle dance of attractions begins intensified by their shared isolation and the muffled hum of threat over a long hard winter.In prose of subtle enigmatic atmospheres and acutely