Naples in the 1950s: Lenù e Lila are two girls who become friends in a poor neighborhood in the extreme eastern outskirts of the port city. Life was hard and they grew up together as best friends. At times they grew apart to then reunite and become even closer.

Their story is told in four books written between 2011 and 2014 by Elena Ferrante: the first book, "My Brilliant Friend", which gives its name to the entire saga in Italian (in English it’s called "The Neapolitan Quartet"), followed by "The Story of a New Name", "Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay" and "The Story of the Lost Child".