A splendid late MGM melodrama sumptuously produced in Europe, largely on Italian locations, by genius Arthur Freed. It's based on a novel by Elizabeth Spencer about a mother caring for her mentally disabled daughter. As the daughter, Yvette Mimeux gives a performance of great skill and subtlety under the direction of the still underrated British cameraman-turned-director Guy Green, and Olivia de Havilland is perfectly cast as the mother. George Hamilton makes a suave suitor, but the film's delicate tone is disrupted by the silly antics of Rossano Brazzi and Barry Sullivan.

A young American woman traveling in Italy with her mother is slender, blonde, beautiful and there is something charmingly naive about her. Fabrizio Naccarelli seems to always know where the mother and daughter will sightsee next. Signor Naccarelli is just as concerned about where this will lead as Mrs. Johnson is. Then she starts thinking that perhaps her daughter can be a wife of a wealthy young man in a society where all she has to do is look beautiful. What happens if Signor Naccarelli finds out who his prospective daughter-in-law really is?