A young woman who has mastered the strategies of the chess board finds it doesn't always help her in the real world in this drama from Italy. Maria (Barbara Bobulova) is a teenaged chess expert who displays an ease and assurance in the game that she lacks in her life. Maria works closely with Sterlizia (Tony Bertorelli), a chess coach who has been tutoring her in the game for some time, though Emilio (Ettore Bassi), a journalist working on a story about Maria, is convinced that their relationship is more abusive than mutually beneficial. As Emilio follows Maria while she plays a series of important matches against Italy's reigning chess champion, the girl receives some startling news -- she was adopted. She soon sets out to find out the identity of her birth parents. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi