On convalescent leave on his birth-island off Dalmatia, Franco (Marco Leonardi), a Croatian-speaking soldier in the Italian army, sees things that cause him to question his loyalty to the Italian rulers in the area. Thus, he does not think too harshly of the local children's efforts to sabotage the Italian army, and he seeks the wisdom of his older mentor Simeone (Omero Antonutti). From him, he hears the story of another young man who, in the time of World War I, faced a similar dilemma. Emidio (Raoul Bova), the other young man, was a soldier in the Austrian army (Austria ruled the island at that time). Prompted perhaps by a love affair, he was killed while attempting to desert to the Italian side. This film is in Italian. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi