Teenage obsessions clash with the brutal pressures of competitive training, when a team of young gymnasts compete in an elite tournament. Friendships are tested, rivalries flare, and some will do anything to win.

In 1944, American sailor Dean Barry arrives in Naples, a city destroyed by bombing after the liberation of Italy. Dean meets Lucia, a young and very poor girl with whom he falls madly in love. Two years later, at the end of his service, Dean has to return to New Jersey and Lucia remains in Naples, alone and pregnant.