The film is set in 1917 and tells the story of a primary school teacher who because of his libertine and anti-war behavior is forced by his principal to enlist in the Great War in order to not to lose his job. He is destined to a small outpost as heliographic operator. The encounter with the enemy and with characters from every part of Italy, often unable to communicate with each other because of the dialects, ends up to profoundly changing his life.