A medical student living in an African dictatorship flees to Rome when her husband is imprisoned. She supports herself and her studies by working as a cleaner for an English composer, and when he becomes infatuated with her, she demands he prove his love by freeing her husband. Bernado Bertolucci's drama, starring Thandie Newton, David Thewlis, Claudio Santamaria and John C Ojwang.

While in exile in Italy, an African woman finds herself trying to get back home and free her imprisoned husband. But the only man that can help her do so is in love with her.