Publisher's Synopsis
Bologna, Italy, 1929. A newborn baby boy is abandoned by his desperate unmarried mother, who believes he is dead and that she is to blame. The kindness of a stranger means the starving baby survives. Following several years in an orphanage, where Rinaldo still holds onto the hope that his mother will come to claim him, he is entrusted to a heartless foster-mother. Yet amidst the cruelty and violence of this loveless environment Rinaldo meets fellow orphan, Evelina, and the two children create a bond which they believe will never be broken. But his life is shattered when aged barely 13, Evelina is sold into prostitution by their foster-mother. As he grows up and becomes more resourceful, Rinaldo finds work as an errand boy in a brothel, where he encounters Evelina once again. But in his efforts to help her escape her life of exploitation, another dark misfortune pulls them apart and she disappears.
