Main character of the book is thirty-year-old Massimo, owner of a small bar in the heart of Rome. Massimo has never been in love. Each morning at sunrise, he reaches his bar by passing through the city that is still sleeping, and smelling the morning scents, such as fresh-baked bread. The first coffee of the day, the one with the strongest aroma and best taste is waiting for him. All things considered, as the coffee shop comes to life, he keeps on repeating himself that he also feels good alone: the loyal customers Massimo welcomes every day keep him company among the tinkling of coffee cups, the smell of warm croissants and some chitchat. So why is Massimo not able to take his eyes off a green-eyed girl with sprinkling of freckles around her face and the lost look of a foreign tourist, the day she suddenly enters the bar? And least of all making himself understood in any language: so much that, in a timeframe of five minutes of interaction, he ends up having a sugar bowl knocking over him, the door slammed in his face and something very similar to a broken heart that hammers in his chest. However, the girl with the freckles coming from Paris, called Geneviève and inventing crossword puzzles as profession will soon come back to Massimo: because she has a secret she cannot reveal to anyone and that attaches her exactly to that place. Massimo – since he met her for the first time with her messy fringe and the red dress – can’t get her out of his mind, cannot but court her.

Diego Galdino, class 1971, lives in Rome and wakes up every morning at five to open his bar in the centre of town, just like the main character of his novel, where he welcomes his customers every day with the most creative coffees of the city. No one knows when he gets around to writing – activity that is his real great passion after cocktail shaking.