A wartime hospital exposes the conflict between medical compassion, military discipline, bodily survival, and the false promise of victory.
Story Structure — 5 Plot Phases
Victory Beneath the Dead
A traumatized survivor recalls being pulled from beneath corpses as victory celebrations continue. Civilians flee and a military hospital fills with wounded and displaced people.
Key Events
Victory Amid the Corpses — A traumatized survivor recalls a hand pulling him from beneath a mountain of corpses during victory celebrations.
Location: War-torn celebration
Civilians Ordered to Flee — Civilians are warned to flee before soldiers enter their homes.
Location: Civilian homes
The Hospital Fills — Wounded and displaced people continue arriving at an overcrowded military hospital.
Location: Military hospital
Beds Must Be Cleared — Medical staff are pressured to clear beds and return men to their brigades.
Location: Military hospital wards
Equal Treatment Ordered — Officers insist every soldier receive equal treatment and return to the front quickly. Characters: StefanoLocation: Military hospital
Surgery Under Pressure — A badly injured soldier is prepared for surgery while doctors operate under institutional pressure.
Location: Hospital operating room
The Hospital Bargains
Overcrowded wards force doctors to clear beds and return soldiers to combat. Patients debate blindness, deafness, infection, amputation, and the possibility of escaping through illness.
Key Events
Surgery Under Pressure — A badly injured soldier is prepared for surgery while doctors operate under institutional pressure.
Location: Hospital operating room
Patients Debate Their Wounds — Patients discuss blindness, infection, deafness, and the loss of limbs.
Location: Military hospital ward
Escape Through Illness — Some patients consider inventing illnesses or claiming forbidden wounds to avoid combat. Characters: GiulioLocation: Exemption clinic
Deafness and the Front — A patient asks whether an operation causing deafness will allow him to escape the front.
Location: Hospital ward
Refusing Amputation — One soldier refuses to lose a leg, arguing that life without it is worse than death.
Location: Hospital ward
Choosing War Over Disability — Another young soldier chooses war rather than accept permanent disability.
Location: Military hospital
Punishment as Example
Military authorities punish desertion and self-inflicted injury through court-martial and execution. The public killing divides the hospital over cowardice, justice, and murder.
Key Events
Choosing War Over Disability — Another young soldier chooses war rather than accept permanent disability.
Location: Military hospital
Doctors Face Moral Doubt — The doctors recognize that protecting men may shield them from a greater injustice, even as their hands shake. Characters: Giulio, StefanoLocation: Hospital operating room
The Court-Martial Condemnation — A nineteen-year-old soldier is condemned for desertion, conspiracy, and deliberately maiming himself.
Location: Military court
Execution Before the Troops — The condemned soldier is executed before the troops as an example to others. Characters: StefanoLocation: Military execution ground
A Divided Hospital — The execution divides the hospital between those calling the man a coward and those calling the punishment murder. Characters: Giulio, StefanoLocation: Military hospital
Memories Against Authority
Memories involving Stefano and Giulio reveal continuing personal and professional complications. The hospital's internal divisions persist alongside efforts to keep men from the front.
Key Events
A Divided Hospital — The execution divides the hospital between those calling the man a coward and those calling the punishment murder. Characters: Giulio, StefanoLocation: Military hospital
Stefano and His Father Remembered — A conversation recalls how Stefano and his father helped keep someone from the front. Characters: StefanoLocation: Hospital
Giulio's Complicated Presence — Another encounter refers to Giulio's complicated presence within the hospital's moral and professional conflicts. Characters: GiulioLocation: Hospital
Civilians Turned Away — Civilians are refused because the wards are reserved for soldiers, including a woman carrying a feverish child.
Location: Hospital entrance
Victory Without Relief
Civilians are turned away while official newspapers celebrate battlefield victories. Epidemic illness, pneumonia, family memories, and uncertain dreams leave the hospital without genuine peace.
Key Events
Civilians Turned Away — Civilians are refused because the wards are reserved for soldiers, including a woman carrying a feverish child.
Location: Hospital entrance
Victory News Versus Epidemic — Official newspapers glorify battlefield victories while ignoring the epidemic and inadequate pneumonia treatment.
Location: Military hospital
No Peace After Victory — War, illness, memories, and uncertain dreams leave the hospital trapped between saving lives and returning men to destruction. Characters: Giulio, StefanoLocation: Military hospital
Story Breakdown
Trauma Of Victory — The story begins by contrasting public celebration with the survivor's memory of mass death.
Buried Survivor — A survivor describes being pulled from beneath a mountain of corpses.
Celebration And Death — Victory celebrations continue despite the violence remembered by survivors.
Civilian Displacement — The war uproots civilians and sends wounded and displaced people toward an already strained hospital.
Warnings To Flee — Civilians are warned to leave before soldiers enter their homes.
Hospital Arrivals — Wounded and displaced people continue arriving at the military hospital.
Military Hospital Pressure — The hospital must obey military demands even when treatment and recovery are incomplete.
Clearing Beds — Staff are pressured to free beds for incoming patients.
Return To Combat — Officers demand that soldiers be sent back to the front quickly.
Bodily Survival Choices — Patients confront the possibility that medical treatment may produce permanent disability or renewed combat.
Fear Of Deafness — A patient asks whether deafness after surgery will prevent his return to the front.
Refusing Amputation — A soldier argues that life without a leg is worse than death.
Medical Moral Conflict — The doctors face the contradiction between healing patients and protecting them from an unjust military system.
Simulated Illness — Some patients consider inventing illnesses or claiming forbidden wounds.
Shaking Hands — Doctors understand the stakes but operate under visible moral and physical strain.
Giulio And Stefano — Giulio and Stefano embody opposing professional and ethical responses to soldiers seeking escape from combat.
Former Friendship — Their earlier university friendship remains part of the hospital's personal history.
Professional Rivalry — Their opposing medical practices turn their shared profession into a rivalry.
Military Punishment — The army answers desertion and self-inflicted injury with legal terror intended to deter others.
Court Martial — A nineteen-year-old soldier is condemned for desertion, conspiracy, and deliberate self-maiming.
Public Execution — The condemned soldier is executed before the troops as an example.
Victory Without Peace — The ending reveals that official triumph cannot erase illness, exclusion, memory, or the hospital's unresolved contradiction.
Civilians Rejected — A woman carrying a feverish child is turned away because the wards are reserved for soldiers.
Ignored Epidemic — Official newspapers celebrate victories while overlooking the epidemic and inadequate pneumonia treatment.
These are the years of the First World War and Dr. Stefano Zorzi spends his days in the Exemption Clinic in a large city of Northern Italy, where he not only takes care of soldiers who arrive from the massacre of the front, but also he fights simulation and self-harm of those who hope to be dispensed, by sending them before the Military Court. If Stefano, in fact, does his utmost to heal soldiers and send them back to fight, Dr. Giulio Farradio makes them ill, or helps them to self-injure seriously enough to be exonerated. The two doctors, who went to university together and were great friends, they not only (secretly) challenge each other on a professional level, but also on the sentimental one: they are both linked to Anna, a courageous nurse with a strong character. But when the great ‘Spanish’ fever epidemic arrived in 1918, the time for love, politics and science ends up getting confused dangerously...
