Following the Armistice of 1943, Cesare and his comrades leave the army and return to their homes. For Cesare this is a village in the Lombardy countryside outside Milan. There he becomes involved with Laura, a seamstress, but is also attracted to Mathilde an aristocrat. He is drawn back into the war when both the Italian Resistance and the German Army move into the area. After they shoot the local priest, the inhabitants rise up against the Germans and drive them out with the assistance of the partisans.
