In Lecco, by the lake, while the Badonis forge their metal empire, a thread as thin and indestructible as iron keeps the family united amid joys and sorrows, misunderstanding and love.

The intimate saga of an extraordinary family, told by the women of the Badoni household.

Nothing remains of the large factory and Villa Badoni is now unrecognisable. And yet for Marta, the family’s last descendant, this big house is still her heart’s home and the Badoni sisters’ stage. Laura, the eldest, is a rebel who loves freedom. Sofia had the love of her life snatched away from her too soon in a unfortunate accident. Piera is a frail and solitary soul. And there is Adriana, who devotes her life to the family business. At the centre of this female microcosm, there is the patriarch, Giuseppe Riccardo Badoni: the visionary entrepreneur with boundless ambition, who, thanks to the iron produced in his Lecco factories, becomes the protagonist of Italy’s industrialisation and reconstruction during the post-war period. He is a loving father to his eleven daughters, but will never come to terms with the tragic death of his only son, the heir destined to take over the business.