In 1939, the father brings four-year-old Joli Cedraschi from Zurich to the Ticino village to stay with her grandparents. Career prospects have led him, like many other fathers, to the big city, leaving behind the children, the women, and the elderly. In "House of Nonna," she recounts the three years in Mendrisiotto. At the center of her memories of childhood from 1939 to 1941 in the Ticino village is Nonna Vittoria, the grandmother, around whom everything revolves, who commands and dictates the way things should be, who knows what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what can be harmful. Beside her is Nonno Pepp, the grandfather with connections to the world outside the village, who has been to the German and French parts of Switzerland, who sprays the vines in the vineyard, sits with the men in the tavern, and tells his little granddaughter—much to Nonna's dismay—rough stories about all sorts of rascals.