Venice, 1943. The Italian resistance wages a bitter campaign against the occupying Nazi forces. During an attack on a German outpost, a number of partisans are arrested. Faced with the retaliatory executions of their comrades, the resistance leadership are burdened with an impossible choice.

In this unjustly neglected WWII thriller, the brutality, paranoia, and tests of conscience faced by anti-fascist partisans are brought to visceral life. Contrasting fractious political debate with muscular set pieces, this riveting study of insurgency stages a battle between principles and action.