The story of the relationship between Nonna Katia, Christina and Josie--three generations of Italian-Australian women living together in a hothouse atmosphere of love, support and drama on an operatic scale--and their seventeen year-old relative Josie Alibrandi--a girl with plenty of attitude--who is about to enter her final year as a scholarship student at an exclusive Catholic college. The year her life is turned upside down and changed forever. It's the year she meets her father for the first time, discovers some shattering and astonishing things about her family heritage, falls in love with the wrong guy, and has her first, painful encounter with grief.