Show Synopsis:
Francesca, an Italian war bride, loves her family but feels unfulfilled. Her family leaves for the national 4H fair and she looks forward to a little relaxation and solitude. A National Geographic photographer, Robert Kincaid, comes to her house to ask directions to Roseman Bridge so he can finish photographing the county?s covered bridges. Francesca goes with him and later invites him for dinner, though she realizes she is quickly developing feelings for him. The next day, Francesca buys a new dress and follows Robert to the bridge, where they connect over his photographs of Naples. Francesca invites him to dinner again, and her husband Bud calls to tell her they will be staying an extra day at the fair. They separately reflect over their love and marriage. Robert and Francesca kiss, dance, and sleep together while Francesca?s daughter Carolyn worries about her competing steer and her son Michael fights with Bud over his adulthood responsibilities. Francesca and Robert take a day trip to Des Moines and Francesca ponders leaving her family for a life on the road with Bud. The day afterwards, she promises him that she will meet him in town by six o?clock. Francesca?s neighbor Marge shows up and implies that though she knows about Francesca?s affair, she will not tell anybody. Francesca finds she cannot tell Bud about her affair and the entire family heads into town, where Francesca says goodbye to Robert from afar and chooses to stay with her family. Years later, Carolyn is a wife and mother, Michael is a doctor, and Bud dies of illness. Francesca is alone and wonders if the silent phone calls she occasionally receives are Robert. Robert, who is ill himself, packs his belongings, having given up hope that he will ever speak with Francesca again. After he dies, Francesca returns to the bridge with a letter delivered from him posthumously and the picture he took of her at the bridge at the beginning of their romance.
You could have driven into someone else's driveway.
You could have tried to find the bridge another day.
I could have gone off to the fair,
Or locked the door, or washed my hair,
And in a way, that would be better.
We could have chosen to ignore what we were feeling.
We could have prayed to make the wanting go away,
But what we did
Is that we loved,
And love is always better.
I could have gone with you and left behind the cornfields.
I could have seen a world like none I'd ever known.
I could have tied my dreams to yours
And slept beside you on the moors
And who can say? That might be better.
I could have not been where my children turned for answers,
And never seen what they've become now that they're grown,
But what I did
Is that I loved
And love is always better.
It is hard,
It is insane
To place one love
Above another,
But what a choice!
And what a gift!
And what a blessing!
I could have never known
That love like this existed,
But then you kissed me
And you left and then I knew,
But what is true
Is that we loved,
And that I loved,
And that I love,
And I will always love
And love
Is always better.