Che Dio ci aiuti (May God Help Us) is an Italian TV series that has been broadcast in Italy since December 15, 2011.
Plot Sister Angela (Elena Sofia Ricci) is an ex imprisoned nun who completely changed her life, living at a convent named Convento degli Angeli (Angel's Convent), based in Modena. When the convent encounters economic difficulties and risks closure, she decides to convert it into student accommodations including a cafè, "L'Angolo Divino", even if her Mother Superior (Sister Costanza) initially didn't agree. This brings new energy to the convent, which becomes a place where every kind of people can gather.
Sister Angela gets closer especially to Giulia, Azzurra and Margherita in the first season; each of them has a different personality and completely different problems. She speaks to them and learns about their daily lives, often helping to solve their problems.
Important presence of the convent is sister Costanza, wise and grouch mother superior who often scolds sister Angela for not following the rules, but deep down is fond of her.
Season 1 mostly focuses on crime solving, even thanks to the presence of the policeman Marco Ferraro, while later seasons focused more on cases of various kind, with the help of the lawyers Guido Corsi first and Nicodemo "Nico" Santopaolo after. Though they often disapprove of Sister Angela's behavior, the Mother Superior and the lawyers Guido and Nico always end up helping her with her adventures, trying to solve the cases.
Cast and characters Main Elena Sofia Ricci as Sister Angela/Lorenza Rapetti (seasons 1–6; recurring season 7; special guest season 8), she was the protagonist from season 1 to 6. Her original name was Lorenza Rapetti, but after getting out of jail, she becomes a nun and changes her name. She was prisoned for armed robbery and complicity in murder, and through this tragic experience, which affected her a lot, she learned to give value to her life, to little things, emotions and emotional bonding, and through her strong faith she learned that rebirth, learning from our mistakes, maturing and changing by giving second chances is always possible, when you really believe it. She's a real meddler, conditioning person, who always acts for good. She's always willing to help, kind, funny and ready to give herself to people who need her, and thanks to her empathy and intuition she can comprehend pain, doubts and fears of those who are around her, who ask for her help. Her willpower and immense generosity make her become a landmark for those she meets through her path, especially those living in the convent. At the end of season 5, she gets into a spiritual crisis, following Guido's and Davide's deaths, but thanks to Azzurra she finds God again and comes back to loving life again. In season 6, thanks to sister Costanza and Azzurra, she finds out she has a brother named Erasmo, to whom she gets affected. In season 7, she's forced to leave the convent, going to work in prison, but even though she wanted to stay close to Azzurra as becomes a novice, she understands that her presence would prevent the girl from becoming independent. She comes back when Azzurra becomes a nun. Valeria Fabrizi as Sister Costanza/Valeria Valenti (seasons 1–6; recurring season 7; special guest season 8). She's the Mother Superior of the convent, she doesn't accept improper behaviors from sister Angela, and almost feels like she's bothered by her. But she actually has a heart of gold, behind the cold mask, who really loves sister Angela and all the girls living in the convent. She's a really devoted woman. Azzurra loves her a lot, as she becomes a landmark in Azzurra's life just as sister Angela. Francesca Chillemi as Azzurra Leonardi (season 1-present). She seems like the classic fashion victim, snob, raging, egoist superficial girl at first, but with time she starts showing an honest, good ana generous side with the ability of empathize with other people. She had many love interests, like Marco, Giannandrea and Dario, but her real true love was Guido Corsi, which she falls in love with, reciprocated, despite the little arguments they have through the course of the seasons. They start a relationship, and eventually marry. Then, Azzurra knows Rosa, finding out she's her younger half-sister, because they share the same dad. Later, we find out she had a daughter when she was younger, named Emma from her ex-boyfriend Ludovico Nobili, but she gave the baby for adoption, and that was so traumatic for her that she removes the memory of her daughter, who she finds again after many years. Azzurra and Guido adopt Davide, but once they start living together in London, Guido and Davide die in a car accident, leaving a huge grief in her and sister Angela's heart. She decides to go back living in the convent, and slowly finds out a bigger love, love for God, appeasing the chasm left in her heart so much that she decides to become a novice in order to become a nun. She starts brotherly relationship with many people who live in the convent throughout the seasons, but the most important bond she creates is the one with sister Costanza and especially the one with sister Angela, who always believes in her and never stopped helping her, bringing Azzurra to consider her more of a landmark in her life, a sort of a mother, rather than a simple friend. She takes care of Penny, an orphan girl with which she bonds in a special way: the girl is affected by heart disease, and it's only possible to save her through a heart transplant, which was given to her from little Davide. From season 7, she becomes the protagonist, and sister Teresa follows her path through her novitiate, and at the end she takes her perpetual vows, becoming officially a nun. She later moves to Rome in a group home named "La casa del Sorriso", as a living operator, where she meets Lorenzo, the director, and his sons, Pietro and Giulia. With Lorenzo's help, she takes care of the girls living in the group home, trying to help them to build a life and a future and finding stability in their lives. Miriam Dalmazio as Margherita Morbidelli (seasons 1–3; guest season 4). She's a small-town girl, sweet, kind, light-hearted, sensitive and dreamer, really bonded to her family. She has a talent for cooking and loves to dance. She moves to the convent to study, as she is specializing in forensic medicine, even though both her parents believe she's studying pediatrics. She looks for the affection she never had from her mother in sister Angela. She loves everything about crimes, while newborns and children disturb her. She has a long-distance relationship with Carlo, which she eventually dumps, even though she's sad. She won't be admitted to her specializing exam so she has to deal with hospitalized patients, who she starts to curate as a doctor. Right in the hospital, she meets a fascinating doctor who steals her heart, the department head Francesco Limbiati, who she later finds out is already married. She later meets an athlete affected by heart disease, Emilio Della Rosa. When Francesco leaves her wife Clelia to be with her, Margherita finds out she doesn't feel anything for him anymore, finding out she loves Emilio instead, and eventually marries him. In season 3, she comes back to the convent while pregnant, but on the birth day Emilio suffers from a seizure and is brought to the hospital, where, as soon as he sees his newborn daughter, dies. Margherita finds love again thanks to her colleague Carlo Romero, with which, after Azzurra and Guido' wedding, she starts a relationship and leaves, to go live in Brussels. Serena Rossi as Giulia Sabatini (season 1). She's a single mother who had to stop her informatics studies at university to take care of her daughter, Cecilia. She was born nine years earlier after Giulia's relationship with Marco, who doesn't know he's the father. Giulia is a very mature but proud woman, with a strong personality but good at heart and very kind. After contributing with the restructuring of sister Angela's cafè, she's convinced to stay there to work as bartender. Even though she's still in love with Marco, she keeps denying it to herself fearing to be dumped again with a post-it, as he did nine years before, after only two weeks of being together. In the meanwhile, she meets Ruggero, which is Marco's boss, and starts a relationship with him. He asks her to marry him and she says yes, but she changes her mind in the end, running to the train station where Marco's about to leave. He realizes he can't give up on her, and she reveals to him he's Cecilia's father. So he asks her to marry him and she says yes. Massimo Poggio as Marco Ferraro (season 1). He's a superior inspector, declassified because he made a mistake during a mission, even though he shows he's much cleverer and subtler than his superiors. Sister Angela tries everything to protect him, since she's bonded to him by a secret from her youth. That's why he offers hospitality to him inside the convent. Eventually, she reveals to him that she's involved in his father's assassination. Marco's mother, after his father's death, decided to leave his son, who spent his childhood in an institute. For this exact reason, he's apparently incapable of loving other people, and that's the reason he left every girlfriend he ever had after two weeks with a post-it note. It will be sister Angela's job to teach him to trust other people. After a brief relationship with Azzurra, only based on physical attraction, Marco understands he's still in love with Giulia, with whom he had a relationship previously, and after which Cecilia was born, even though he doesn't know he's the father. After Giulia's rejection (who she was about to marry and he had just declared to her), he decides to leave forever, but he'll never get to take to train because he can't give up on her: sister Angela makes him reunite with Giulia and makes her tell him the truth about Cecilia, so he asks her to marry him and she say yes. Laura Piacentile as Cecilia Sabatini (season 1). She's Marco and Giulia's daughter. She's 8 years old, she's very clever, loves to study instead of reading fairy tales. Without her mom knowing, she gets admitted to the conservatory, where she'll study piano. Despite the initial conflicts, she bonds a lot with Marco, who supports her in her dream of studying at the conservatory, and he gets to the point of selling one of the paintings he has at home to buy her a piano. She eventually finds out he's her dad.