Giovanna’s confrontation with her father over the bracelet at Costanza’s Posillipo home turns a family birthday gathering into a contest over who may define the object’s ownership and meaning. Costanza gives Giovanna permission to keep it; Andrea responds with an order to take it off. The bracelet’s passage through the family makes the dispute larger than a disagreement about a gift: it brings Andrea’s concealed relationship with Costanza, his estrangement from Nella, and Giovanna’s own sense of exclusion into the open.

Background and Arrival

Giovanna has not seen Costanza since Costanza, at Nella’s urging, brought her the bracelet. Costanza appears outside Giovanna’s school and invites her to a small family party with her daughters. Andrea is occupied at school for much of the afternoon, but has called Nella, who has consented to the visit. Giovanna notices that Costanza looks especially elegant, though her eyes are swollen. Before they leave, Costanza discreetly asks about her daughter, trying to discover what Giovanna knows without posing direct questions; Giovanna avoids connecting Angela to Tonino or revealing the details she has learned.

The drive takes them from Via San Giacomo dei Capri to Costanza’s home in Posillipo. Giovanna is struck by the view of the sea, the sky, and Vesuvius, and understands that this is where her father lives. The beauty of the setting contrasts with Costanza’s evident distress and the concealed tensions that have brought Giovanna into the household.

The Request About the Bracelet

Before the gathering, Costanza asks Giovanna for a small favor: to remove the bracelet because her daughters do not know that Costanza gave it to her. Costanza suggests that it might be less complicated if she told the truth, but then says that truth is difficult and that Giovanna will understand when she grows up. The request makes plain that the gift cannot be treated as a private exchange; its history and the family’s competing claims are already shaping the visit.

Giovanna returns to the table wearing the bracelet. In the bathroom she has washed her face in anger, remade her eyes as Costanza had done after crying, and taken the bracelet from her pocket. Angela asks why Giovanna has her mother’s bracelet. When Giovanna says Costanza gave it to her, Angela protests that she wanted it; Ida says she liked it too. Andrea, visibly pale, intervenes and tells Giovanna to give it back. Costanza refuses: she gave the bracelet to Giovanna, and it is hers.

The Confrontation

Asked why Costanza gave it to Giovanna, Costanza describes her as a good, studious girl. Giovanna rejects the praise by disclosing that she failed the previous school year and is repeating it. Andrea tries to minimize the disclosure, saying she is doing well this year and may complete two years in one, but still urges her to hand the bracelet to Angela and Ida. Giovanna answers that it belonged to her grandmother and that she cannot give it to strangers.

Andrea then insists that he knows who the bracelet belongs to and orders Giovanna to remove it. She tears it from her wrist and throws it toward a kitchen cabinet. This action abruptly changes the gathering’s balance: Costanza’s decision to give the bracelet to Giovanna has been challenged by Andrea, and Giovanna rejects both his claim of authority and the attempt to make her surrender it quietly. She leaves the apartment with the bracelet in her backpack, along with a piece of cake for Nella.

The Drive Home and Andrea’s Explanation

After the party, Andrea drives Giovanna home. Costanza retrieves the bracelet from the floor, checks that it is unbroken, and again declares that it irrevocably belongs to Giovanna. She refuses further discussion. The birthday celebration has lost its appearance of good cheer: Ida has blown out her candles, Angela is depressed, and the cake for Nella is wrapped for Giovanna to take home. Costanza’s insistence settles the immediate question of the gift, but Andrea’s distress continues in the car.

Andrea tells Giovanna that he thinks she sees him as having ruined Nella’s life and now wants to damage his, Costanza’s, and the girls’ lives in retaliation. He recognizes her fear and says that he has become someone he did not want to be, asking for time and promising that he will return to the person she knows. He also insists that Giovanna remains his only daughter and that he still loves both her and Nella. These reassurances sit uneasily beside the conflict she has just witnessed and his admission that his conduct has changed.

Andrea then recounts the history of his relationship with Costanza. He says he had loved Nella since their school days and had long regarded Costanza as a sister, just as he regarded Mariano as a brother. He describes feeling sorry for Costanza because Mariano had other affairs, and says he believed his wish to protect her was part of a sibling-like bond. During a work trip, however, a private conversation after dinner led him to recognize that their love was not that of brother and sister. He presents the discovery as unexpected and difficult to explain, and says the feeling was intense and inescapable. His account gives context to the gift and to Costanza’s distress, but it is also an extended attempt to defend and interpret his choices.

The Bracelet’s History and the Event’s Significance

Andrea explains that he had come to think of the bracelet as Costanza’s. When his mother died, he wanted it; he says he struck Vittoria when she insisted it was hers. Later, when Giovanna was born, he told Vittoria to give it to the child. He then gave it to Costanza, believing that the gesture would please her. In his telling, what he understood as an act of kindness may instead have caused harm: the bracelet’s changing owners reflects relationships and intentions that the people involved do not experience in the same way.

Andrea frames this history through the idea that actions can function as symbols, with good intentions turning into harm without the person recognizing it. Giovanna hears the explanation but does not accept it as a resolution. She tries to tell him that the conflict is between him and Nella, and between him and Costanza, and that she does not want to be made responsible for it. At the same time, she wishes she could discuss how goodness and harm coexist in people, a question she feels Andrea knows better than Vittoria. He continues to pile up justifications, accusations, self-reproach, and claims of suffering rather than engage with that question. When they arrive home, Giovanna kisses him and runs away. The confrontation ends with the bracelet still hers, but without reconciliation: the object has made the family’s hidden claims visible, while Andrea’s explanation leaves the underlying hurt unresolved.