Gianni Alberti is a journalist who is sent to Palestine. He decides to fake a fatal accident so he can then return home as a hero. But things don't turn out as planned, Gianni end up coming back to Italy, but only as a ghost.
Aldo Piscitello, a minor government clerk, is forced in 1934 to join the Fascist party. When the war comes, he finds himself able only to talk ineffectually in secret against Mussolini, even as his own son Giovanni is sent into battle. By the end of the war, Aldo has found the courage to stand up for his beliefs, but by then it is too late.
