In the London of 1922, downtrodden housewife Lottie Wilkins (Josie Lawrence) feels the sudden need to get away from things, and invites her neighbour Rose (Miranda Richardson) - to whom she has never even spoken before - to share a holiday in an Italian villa. In order to save their finances, they share their holiday home with haughty dowager Mrs Fisher (Joan Plowright) and beautiful socialite Lady Caroline Dester (Polly Walker). Upon arrival the foursome clash almost instantly, but gradually learn to live with one another as their respective personalities are transformed by the surroundings. Synopsis This delightful and witty adaptation of Elizabeth Von Arnim's novel has a superb cast and a location that creates a magic of its own. In grey, rainy 1920s England, Lotte and Rose, tired of their overbearing husbands, decide to rent a villa for a month in Portofino, Italy. To share the cost they are joined by two other, very different, women – Lady Caroline, a beautiful but bored socialite and crusty old Mrs. Fisher, who has an impeccable literary pedigree. They all want to escape from trapped lives and in this paradise, in ways they never imagined possible, that is what they all do.