When Marie’s boyfriend proposes to her in front of his entire family, she doesn't know what to say and flees to the countryside to think it over alone. But her thoughts accompany her. They sit around her in flesh and blood: Her mother pesters her with baby names, exboyfriends climb down trees and a woman in a sari narrates her life in poems. Her would-be fiancé eventually joins her, clashing his own luggage of thoughts with hers. But what if you show your thoughts to each other? How much honesty can a relationship take?

In 1914, with Italy on the cusp of joining World War I, a group of foreign artists establishes a commune on the rural island of Capri, catching the attention of young Lucia, a local illiterate shepherdess who soon falls under their spell.