Anna is a writer whose small but perfectly formed novels sell poorly. When she falls on hard times and tries her hand at erotic fiction, she faces an uncomfortable truth. Though she is in a long marriage, and the mother of two, her stories fail to fly because she’s never experienced true sexual desire. Even her Sicilian grandmother – wearer of diamante sunglasses and knock-off Louis Vuitton – knows more than she does about true passion.

A romance-writing workshop doesn’t help, but Cordelia, a classmate, suggests she borrows an alter ego to banish her inhibitions, a new world opens up to Anna and The Love Factory – a group of writers penning ever more successful sexy stories – is born.

The more Anna writes, the more she sees that for the sake of her stories, and her life, she needs to risk a proper love of her own.