Having long forgone her aspirations to become a professional actress due to personal circumstances, Amelia Tate of Bend, Oregon, on the urging of her younger sister Kathryn Tate, applies to the worldwide open casting call for an unknown, and is offered the role of Princess Anna in the highly anticipated remake of Roman Holiday (1953) with movie star Jonathan Lyman as the male lead in the role of the journalist. Information of who has been cast as the female lead is kept under wraps until the press junket begins, and as such Amelia has to keep a low profile in Rome and on social media until that first press conference. Meanwhile, American freelance journalist Philip Hamilton, in Italy for a year working on his first novel, has to work several jobs, including hotel porter and waiter, to make ends meet. Vivien Daniels, editor of the English language magazine Vistoso, gives him the assignment of writing all about the mysterious unknown hired for the female lead in the well publicized remake. In approaching director Domenic D'Andrea, Philip is surprised not only that Vivien has already arranged with D'Andrea for the story to be an exclusive, but that the said unknown is the young American woman he has served at the hotel in his role as porter. Philip finds that Amelia is less than open about her life for the story, she stating this unexpected ride being her own and not that of her family, who she doesn't want exposed in the process, especially Kathryn. To reassure her, Philip, unauthorized to do so, gives her editorial control over the final story. In spending time together, they, unspoken, start to fall for each other, with Philip, finding more and more about her in putting the pieces together on his own leading out of what she does tell him on and off the record, being inspired by her and her story. Their budding romance may be kiboshed before it even begins if Philip cannot come through with his promise to her, which becomes more of a possibility with Vivien never agreeing to such, and other Roman journalists fighting for the story regardless of Vistoso's exclusive.
