In post WWII Italy, Passero, the son of a winemaker killed by the Nazis, commits an impetuous act. He kidnaps a young orphaned girl and offers her up in exchange for his own freedom. His actions create a lifelong connection with her culminating in an adulterous affair in Toronto in the 1960s, while he is building a life with another woman. The union produces an illegitimate son named Ethan, who, in time, becomes an artist and inherits the vineyard once belonging to Passero's family. The vineyard, as the artist discovers, is a place where truth extends from fiction, a place for new roots and shoots, a place where God and art interweave and become interchangeable.

Toronto's Robert Marrone holds a degree in philosophy and literature with subsequent graduate courses in writing and editing. He is a frequent contributor to Canadian Rail Magazine. He currently works as a project manager and freelance technical writer. The New Vine is the first in a projected trilogy.