World War II Italy...1943. After parachuting behind enemy lines on an espionage mission, an American soldier is imprisoned by the enemy. He escapes with four Italian prisoners, enlisting their aid in exploding a bridge.
The film is a portrait of the Novak family: the results of the marriage between the farmer Novak and a townswoman of German descent, their children and their tragic fates and the life of Andrej - the Novaks' only surviving child. Andrej recalls the days of his youth and the wartime years, in which...