Italian heiress left to confront heartless idea (6)
I believe the answer is:
portia
'italian heiress' is the definition.
(I know that Portia is Italian)
'left to confront heartless idea' is the wordplay.
'left' becomes 'port' (left side of a ship - opposite of starboard).
'to confront' says to put letters next to each other.
'heartless' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'idea' with its centre taken out is 'ia'.
'port'+'ia'='PORTIA'
(Other definitions for portia that I've seen before include "Theatrical "lawyer"" , "Wife of Brutus or Bassanio" , "She opposed Shylock" , "Venetian heiress" , "Shakespearean character" .)