Italian POWs Alfredo and Joseph are billeted with Dorothy, ostensibly as farmhands but treated more like family members or arms-length friends.
Domestic arrangements are overturned when Dorothy is expected to host a pair of Jewish German refugees: Frau Guttman and her shy daughter Rachel.
The daughter is pleased to be there and eager to fit in, but the Frau, who is proud of her pre-war wealth and status, cannot reconcile herself to the place or the culture.
There is a mutual attraction between Alfredo and Dorothy, and grows steadily, but loyalty to their distant spouses holds them apart; meanwhile a secret romance develops between Joseph and Rachel, who may be below the age of consent.
At the next visit of the Army officials, Frau Guttman makes vague accusations against the Italians: she may have witnessed some illicit sexual activity but refuses to give names.