The novel follows a woman, Modesta, who is born on 1 January 1900 and her experiences though her life in the twentieth century. The text is written for the most part in the first person (by Modesta), but sometimes also in the third person, especially in the first part of the novel.

一场大火吞噬了莫德丝塔的过往，也焚尽了她的枷锁。她被修道院那位圣洁美丽的院长收留，却在日复一日的仰望中，滋长出禁忌的渴望——既然得不到偏爱，那便将她拖入深渊。

二十世纪初的西西里，腥咸的海风裹挟着暴力与背叛。莫德丝塔辗转至贵族深宅，释放欲望，尽享当下的欢愉。直到法西斯主义盛行，莫德斯塔在硝烟中投身政治，成了共产主义的信徒。她在权谋与信仰的交织中淬炼成钢，成为乱世灵魂的庇护所。

她生于灰烬，却活成了燎原的烈焰……

2025 film directed by Damiano Michieletto

Bianca is 23 years old, and it already feels like too much. She has left her parents' home and is supposed to be attending university, but she never goes. She has a few specific obsessions: the passing of time, cocaine, and Angelica. Ever since they started living together, everything seems to move faster, spiraling downwards. Even their friendship stumbles into addiction and becomes confused with love.
Bianca keeps a notebook, jotting down notes for her books, but she wishes she could write everything in it: that youth is painful and already slipping away, that friendship breaks your heart, and that we constantly lose everything — and yet, maybe, in the end — between the night streets of Rome, the boys of Naples, and the tree that stands silently, visible through the window — nothing will be truly lost.