Present day: A film director (Ozpetek, playing himself) has invited his favourite actresses over for lunch to help him develop his next work. He doesnt reveal much, but asks them to read over a script. He observes them, collecting reactions and suggestions, and assigns parts, transporting them all into another era

1974: sisters Alberta (Luisa Ranieri) and Gabriella (Jasmine Trinca) as different as they are close – head up Sartoria Canova, a prestigious atelier in the Testaccio neighbourhood, specialising in film and theatre; we follow as they and the virtuoso dressmakers they employ are tasked by a renowned but irritable director (Stefano Accorsi) with creating wardrobes for an 18th Century historical epic, including a spectacular dress needed for the pictures concluding scene. Outside and within the studio, passions, anxieties and unbreakable bonds intertwine as the line between reality and fiction begins to blur