The Secrets of the Pebbles is about life, love and gossip on the tiny Aeolian Island of Filiudi. When in 1940, italy is thrust into World War Two, the 17 year old Francesca is separated from her lover who is sent to fight. Finding herself pregnant soon after his departure, she refuses to divulge the father's name. Not only are others implicated as a result of her secretiveness, but many more secrets are uncovered, gossip gets out of hand, and more scintillating tales emerge. Francesca's secret becomes a link to the secrets of others. Little by little the ramifications of secrets that extended through two generations, begin to emerge. When a long-hidden manuscript is discovered in 1995, the pieces of a gian jigsaw eventually come together with total unpredictability.