After enduring a particularly brutal and sudden divorce in San Francisco, Frances (Lane) finds herself on a cheerfully gay tour of Italy, which she abandons when she spots a gorgeous old villa for sale and decides to start her life over again in Tuscany. Desperately looking for love again, she builds a sort of family out of her estate agent (Riotta), a trio of Polish builders (Szajda, Pelka, Vulicevic), a mad Englishwoman (Duncan), sundry neighbours and her best friend visiting from the States (Oh). She flirts with lots of handsome Italians, including a supermodel (Bova) she thinks might be The One. And life continues to throw surprises at her until she realises that she's better off just holding on for the ride instead of worrying about what's around the next corner.

This is a nice lesson to learn, but writer-director Wells lays it on so thickly that, after the third conveniently contrived plot turn and the fifth heavy-handed rebirth metaphor, we start to feel queasy. Then she states the message about 10 times in rapid succession just to make sure we got it. It's a surprising misstep for an otherwise thoughtful and amusing script, loosely based on a true story. Lane plays the role exceptionally well--there's not much to it really, but she manages to convey authentic subtext and a nice comic sensibility that keeps us on her side. Meanwhile, the supporting cast do a fine job in their roles, but each person and situation is so loaded with Important Life Lessons that the film sags badly under the pressure to teach us something. But if you take it as just a bit of overly sweet fluff, it's rather enjoyable really.