Alba always feels like an outsider. She hardly knew her Italian mother and her English father acts as if Valentina never existed. She despises country life almost as much as she despises her stepmother and stepsisters. On board the houseboat named after her dead mother, Alba's life is little more than a selfish search for fun and pleasure.

But the discovery of her mother's portrait sends the girl back to Italy to find her family - and the truth about Valentina. Amid the olive groves of the Amalfi coast, its balmy air rich with the scent of figs, a tale of deception and betrayal is waiting to be discovered. It is a tale that takes Alba into the past - but also gives her a new future.