We never realize what we are becoming. It all happens in an instant. It is as if life—having previously lingered comfortably on the threshold without disturbing us—suddenly knocks on our door and announces: I am passing through.
Italo, nearing eighty, has decided to retire. But while preparing to close the doors of Pensione Palomar—a B&B sandwiched between skyscrapers—he finds a collection of love letters in the trash bin dated fifty years ago. He does not know, but they are addressed to him. As the closing date approaches, the lives of a motley group of guests become inevitably entwined.
There is Guido, an English teacher tasked with teaching a mute girl to speak; Lucia Ormea, a man searching for the father he hasn’t seen since childhood; retired General Adolfo Trento, convinced that the key to peace lies in war; Ingrid, a harpist with a broken wrist who works as a supermarket cashier and spends her nights with men she meets by chance; and finally Emma, the housekeeper, for whom Pensione Palomar has been home for far too long. These men and women wait for someone or something to come and save them before it is too late. Little do they know, it is never too late.
