Elizabeth Hess

Italian Lessons is the touching, humorous story of Caterina, a beautiful young widow who teaches Italian to Peter, a high school student who uses the "language of love" simply to score with girls. Peter's passion for life re-ignites feelings Caterina has not experienced since her husband's death and soon she and the boy are drawn into a strange and special relationship. When a suitor from Italy arrives to propose marriage to Caterina, it becomes apparent that only Peter can release his teacher's heart and make her free to love again.

The kids have been tucked into bed and read their bedtime stories, and after a long, tiresome day, a young married couple is about to retire for the evening. The husband turns on the TV and channel-surfs between commercials as his wife, clearly exhausted, settles into a deep sleep. Each commercial the husband views is more sensual than the last and, in short order, he's horny. He tries to stir his wife, but she's not having it. Through a series of fantasies and flashbacks, A Bedtime Story offers a humorous glimpse into the minds of the couple as they try (again and again) to achieve their conflicting goals. Compromise was seldom this inventive.