During World War II, Italians and English occupy alternatively a village between the Albanian and Grecian borders. Not only do they use the same hotel (the Iris) as headquarters, but they also find the time to build up a kind of friendship. In fact the two colonels, the Italian Col. Di Maggio and the English Henderson, save each other's lives. But one day German army orders to Di Maggio a massive bombing in order to completely destroy the village, killing all its occupants and inhabitants, including the girls with whom the Italians have fallen in love. Di Maggio refuses and is sentenced to death. It is the night before the famous September 8, 1943.