Paolo, an Anglo-Italian writer, has been invited to work on the memoirs of Julius Aventinus, a renowned English Renaissance art historian. To facilitate the work, Julius invites Paolo and his French wife, Sylvie, to stay with him and his family in his Medici villa near Florence. While Paolo spends his days buried in the library, Sylvie, with little to occupy her time, grows increasingly frustrated. Excluded from Julius’s after-dinner discussions on Renaissance art, she decides to turn the tables on the two men. What begins as an act of revenge becomes a deeper exploration of language and intellect.