Synopsis:

When Professor Fossato is offered a summer course in Iowa teaching at St. Ambrose University he doesn’t know that it will turn his world upside down. He is in his fifties, an accomplished Dante scholar, a grandfather and a happily married man. So when he meets Greta, his teaching assistant he is quite content to let her be his guide and hardly notices what a gorgeous looking woman she is.
Greta is always there to help him and begins to think that her admiring glances are not just for his scholarly knowledge but perhaps for him too. Suddenly Fossalto realizes he has fallen in love with his young companion. Even though he’s not nearly as attractive as Greta’s boyfriend and even though he loves his wife and grandson he has left behind in Italy, he nevertheless begins dreaming about staying in America to be with Greta. She is unaware that Fossalto feels so strongly about her but enjoys spending time with the professor. She is fond of George but is hesitant about marrying into a bourgeois lifestyle where there is no intellectual stimulation.
George gets annoyed with Greta because she cannot decide to marry him and tells her she must make a decision immediately, marriage or he will leave her. Fossalto will never write that letter to his wife saying that he is staying in America, and will never declare his love for Greta. But perhaps it is all for the best that this beautiful dream remains a dream.