| Director | Franco Zeffirelli |
|---|---|
| Budget | $12 million |
| Box office | $45.5 million |
A group of cultured expatriate English women – the Scorpioni – meet for tea every afternoon in Florence, Italy in 1935. Luca is the young, out-of-wedlock son of an Italian businessman whose father has little interest in his upbringing. The boy's seamstress mother has recently died. His father's secretary, Mary Wallace, steps in to care for Luca, seeking support from her Scorpioni friends, including eccentric would-be artist Arabella. Luca learns about life and the arts. Elsa Morganthal, a rich young American widow whom Scorpioni matron Lady Hester Random barely tolerates, sets up a financial trust for Luca, as she was fond of his mother and still owes money for her dressmaking services.
When Italian Fascists attack the café during an afternoon tea, the uncertain position of the expatriate community is revealed. Lady Hester, widow of Britain's former ambassador to Italy, is an admirer of Benito Mussolini and she proudly recounts a "tea with Mussolini" at which she received personal assurances of their safety from him. Nonetheless, the Scorpioni find their position increasingly precarious. Luca's father decides Italy's future is with Germany rather than Britain and sends Luca to an Austrian boarding school.
Five years later, Luca plans to study art in Florence with Elsa's trust fund but finds that most British nationals are fleeing in anticipation of Mussolini's declaration of war on Great Britain. Mary has moved in with Lady Hester and the other English hold-outs. He follows the Scorpioni - including Hester's grandson Wilfred, disguised as a woman – to the Tuscan town of San Gimignano.
As the U.S. is not at war, Elsa and her American compatriot Georgie Rockwell, an openly lesbian archaeologist, remain free. Elsa uses Luca to deliver forged orders and funds to move the ladies from drab quarters to an upper class hotel. Believing Mussolini helped, Lady Hester brandishes the newspaper photo of her tea with Il Duce. Elsa, who is Jewish, has Luca deliver fake passports to Italian Jews as fascist persecution worsens. Luca, enamored of Elsa, becomes jealous to learn she's involved with Italian lawyer Vittorio.
, where many of the film's scenes were shot.]]
When the U.S. enters the war in 1941, Elsa and Georgie are interned with the British women. Vittorio is revealed as a con artist who embezzled Elsa's art collection and money, and plans to deliver her to the Gestapo in a phony escape to Switzerland. Luca knows and tells no one out of jealous spite, but has a change of heart and gives his trust fund money to the Italian resistance movement which Wilfred has joined. Elsa is unconvinced of Vittorio's betrayal. Lady Hester's praise of Mussolini earns her a rebuke from Mary which convinces her to assist Luca and Wilfrid in helping Elsa escape. Elsa reveals she supported Luca's mother with her pregnancy, so he could be there for her.
In July 1944, Arabella defends her frescoes from demolition by retreating German troops, joined by Georgie, Lady Hester and the English women. San Gimignano rejoices as the Scots Guards arrive to liberate the city. The British have orders to evacuate the Scorpioni but Lady Hester refuses, resolved to resume their former lives in Italy. Mary is delighted to see that Luca – now in British uniform – has become the "English gentleman" his father wished him to be.
Closing texts explain the mostly happy fates of the characters, concluding with the remark that Luca has become an artist and helped with the making of the film.