The Bride

Calabria, Southern Italy, late 60s. In order to repay their debts, the Saggese family must accept a marriage by proxy. Maria sacrifices herself, agreeing to marry Vittorio Bassi, a farmer from a city in the North, thus giving up her roots and the hopes of one day reuniting with the love of her life, Antonio, who moved to Belgium.

Maria wins over Paolino and wants him to go back to school. With a little help from Carla, a friend who works in the fields with her, gifted with a strong political mind, she persuades the town teacher to let Paolino take the exam to reenter third grade. Maria's workdays proceed in the hazelnut grove and at the market.

The body is Giorgia's, Italo's first wife. The autopsy clears his name of any murder charge, but it also destroys his hopes of ever seeing her again. Devastated, the man attempts to end his life, but Maria manages to talk him out of it.

Before Maria went back to Calabria, Italo offered her the chance to never come back and be free of their make-believe marriage. Upset and disappointed, the woman returns home to assist her brother Giuseppe, gravely ill, and her heart skips a beat because she sees Antonio, her first love: he was the one who saved her brother's life.

Vittorio dies. Since he regretted swindling the family of Italo's first wife, before his passing he had given the land he had stolen back to the woman's brother, and had bought new lands, seemingly marshy and fallow. Italo is worried about these last expenses and the spinning mill shutting down, but Maria is an optimist.

The fire in the farmstead turns everyone's lives upside down. Maria refuses to accept any help, until she gives in and is admitted into the hospital. After a long convalescence, the woman uncovers dreadful circumstances surrounding Paolino and his brother Giuseppe that show her Antonio's true colors. Maria will fight for justice to be made and to get her life back.