“L’ora di Arianna” is a romantic comedy that tells the story of Marco (Lorenzo Richelmy), a brilliant but self-centered actor whose career takes a nosedive after a scene on set gets out of hand, causing him to lose his job. To rehabilitate his image, he is persuaded by Paolo (Sergio Assisi), his agent, to teach a theater class at a provincial women’s prison in the small town he had left to pursue his dream of acting—and to which he had never returned. Welcoming Marco—with a mix of suspicion and irony—is Aunt Tina (Emanuela Grimalda), a social worker and the town’s “Miss Marple,” who offers her nephew pearls of wisdom and a touch of cynicism in an attempt to help him. But in prison, Marco also unexpectedly reunites with Arianna (Mariana Lancellotti)—his great love from his youth, who is unjustly imprisoned for fraud.
Defending her is attorney Francesco (Gabriele Cirilli), who pushes a little too hard for the young woman to accept a plea bargain.