Petals in pastel water

the long version

A chain of enduring love begins on a mountain in old Calabria, Italy, where young Giovanna stands looking west across the sea toward Sicily. Down in her village, poor but not hungry children chew day-old bread and dried figs as their elders go about daily rituals all under the watchful eye of Brizio, the occasionally benevolent but always dangerous "head" of the local secret society. On a winter day just after Christmas in the year 1908, all seems normal but Giovanna senses that something is different. She cannot imagine the scope of the upheaval about to come. One that will prepare her to turn turmoil into triumph beyond the mountain.