Rossella PMC

Late 19th-century Genoa. As the daughter of nobleman and industrialist Pietro Andrei, the lovely, vivacious young Rossella is accustomed to luxury. Her charmed life takes an unexpected and, for her family, highly unwelcome turn when she falls head over heels in love with the handsome journalist Giuliano. Rossella wants to marry Giuliano and not the industrialist her father has chosen. Pietro, however, categorically rejects the young man of humble origins, whose outsized ambition is visible to all but Rossella. After running away with Giuliano, Rossella is banished from her family home and soon left alone and pregnant by Giuliano, who travels to the Italian colonies of North Africa in search of fame and fortune. Rossella begins a descent into poverty, but is buoyed by the affection of her poor neighbors and, above all, by the dedicated young physician Riccardo, unhappily married to Countess Sophie. The enlightened aristocrat defies his frivolous, class-conscious wife to treat the poor for free. Rossella, who impresses Riccardo with her commitment, begins to study medicine — a nearly unthinkable undertaking for a woman at that time, especially for a single mother. Rossella must soon weather many storms. She is reunited with her mother, whom Pietro banished to a convent after she committed adultery. She is shocked by the change in Giuliano upon his return from Abyssinia, realizing that the man she loves has amassed a fortune as an arms dealer. She is troubled by Riccardo’s …