 1943, Italy s Salentino peninsula. Tony, an American fighter pilot, raised speaking Italian in New York, parachutes to safety and is hidden at the olive farm of Carmine, a man with three daughters. One is being courted by Pasquale, the son of the area s largest landowner. It is she, Cosima, whom Tony falls for. He gets to know her through the rhythms of the farm and a traditional way of life, expressed in spontaneous song and in pizzicatas (a courtship dance; a dance that enacts a knife fight between men; and, the frenzied tarantata - a woman s dance exorcising passion). As Carmine protects Tony and as Cosima begins to love him, Pasquale does not go gently.