The author tells the story of the Gabbrielli family, who for centuries had been the gardeners of a historic villa in Fiesole. In 1902 Emilio Gabbrielli opened a florist's bottega in Florence and married Chiarina, an originally illiterate peasant girl, who had become a lady in waiting to the English "Ladies" who owned the Villa. The bottega thrived but after two decades things changed dramatically. Chiarina had a serious stroke and shortly after, Emilio died of a heart attack. Chiarina was forced to hand over its management to another florist and their 13-year-old son Maurizio became a lowly assistant in what had been his family business. The bottega continued to prosper until the war intervened. Maurizio was conscripted, fought in Greece, survived the wounds he received and at the end of the war returned to Florence and the bottega. He met and married Valeria, the daughter of labourers from the Bassa Modenese, and it was she who researched the Gabbrielli family tree and provided the genesis of this book, a story which documents the rapid and profound transformation of the rural and urban society of Florence, substantially unchanged for centuries, during the 20th century.