Julia, a fashion designer harboring a secret, spends ten days of passion in the Alps with Valerio, a race car driver, in what will be their last vacation together.

Julia, a divorced American fashion designer, is dying of a tragic, incurable disease. With only ten days to live, she spends her time vacationing in an Italian villa and watching television. She spots a TV interview with an Italian engineer Valerio, who designs plastic air bags to protect passengers in automobile collisions. She recognizes his face as having met him before at the airport and calls him up to invite him over to her villa where they decide to spend the next several days together, making love. Julia's friend Maggie reappears and reveals that Julia is actually an escapee from the hospital where she was being treated for her disease. Maggie urges Julia to return to the hospital where she can die a painless death. Julia ignores her and returns to the villa and the arms of her lover. Maggie then telephones Valerio and tells him about Julia's condition. Valerio is willing to stay for the duration but Julia is so upset by the fact that her lover knows her secret that she runs to a nearby mountaintop with the intention of committing suicide.—alfiehitchie

An American woman named Julia is vacationing by herself at an Italian villa. Her initial plan is to be by herself to reflect on her life, but after seeing him on television, she decides to invite an Italian engineer named Valerio to the villa. Julia and Valerio met only once previously on an airport tarmac, when Julia was then married. At that time, Valerio propositioned her, telling her to give him a call if she ever made it to Italy. Her current proposal to him is for him to stay with her for two days only of her ten day visit, after which she needs to return to the United States. He agrees despite already being involved with someone else. As their time progresses, it gets extended on mutual agreement, and moves from the villa, where they leave to get away from the other guests, to a secluded mountain chalet. Despite Julia's proposal, she speaks to him like there is a possible future between the two of them, as she seems to be falling in love with him and he with her. But she knows that a future is not possible. She has to decide how much longer she will allow Valerio to stay in her life. Conversely, Valerio, if he were ever to discover her secret and why she needs to head back to the US after ten days, will also have to decide how to handle the situation considering his feelings for her.—Huggo