Three years after the events of Mascarpone, Antonio’s emotional state is rattled when Luca, his former boss, ex-lover, and friend, re-enters his life and the two set out to open a pastry shop together. Unsatisfied with where life has taken him, Antonio looks to recreate the past to bring about a happier future.

Antonio’s current state is successful but hollow; he has become a social media sensation, starring in recipe tutorial videos, sporting a viral catchphrase, and has a luxury apartment all his own. He’s grown exhausted by playing puppet though, being leveraged by his employer for influencer partnerships and forced into a persona he doesn’t want.

Once a magazine profile piece on Antonio is published, Luca walks through the doors of Antonio’s bakery and re-enters the picture. He’s fallen on hard times, and Antonio feels nostalgia for the stage of life he shared with Luca and the late Denis. Longing to bring back the happiness from the past, he sees reconnecting his one-flame with Luca as an alternate path forward, and the two decide to become professional partners. As they reconnect through this endeavor, their respective boyfriends, Dario with Antonio and Tancredi with Luca, grow jealousy that there may be more than strictly business between the old friends.

It’s fun to see Luca again in a more leading role, but Antonio’s storyline feels regressive from his growth in Mascarpone, with a distorted view of the past. Three years earlier, Antonio has a fling with Luca, his boss at the time, plus a casual encounter with his roommate Denis, but Luca’s role (as well as Denis’s) is depicted more as a transitory guardian over Antonio, guiding him as he navigates a new chapter of life post-divorce. It’s a temporary phase, not some special, particularly meaningful connection between Antonio and Luca. This stage appears to last no more than a few months, and ends abruptly, so it doesn’t ring true that Antonio, three years later, would cling to it as some peak period of happiness.

Livening up the energy around Antonio’s disappointing and misplaced story arc, the new settings and characters inject an engaging dynamic into the narrative. Dario, Antonio’s boyfriend, is hopelessly cuckolded by Antonio’s dalliances and pursuit of Luca, but his clearly-aware glances and restrained tongue hold a composure where the others’ emotions are unfiltered. On the other side is Luca’s boyfriend Tancredi, insecure in his relationship and threatened by Antonio, but more firmly grounded in his own self. As a drag queen and youth leader at a local LGBT center, his ties to the community and next generation anchor the Mascarpone universe boys into a world outside of their melodrama.

Even with its alternate take on the events from the first film, Mascarpone: The Rainbow Cake feels like a stronger entry, with a greater perspective and, frankly, less screen time given to Antonio and his exploitation of others. With less screen time dedicated to Antonio, there’s more room for the side characters to shine and grow, in ways not harmful to themselves or to others, which perhaps is the greatest lesson of all to impart on the young pastry chef.