Bologna, 1940. A young man falls desperately in love with a nurse of the American army. A year later, circumstances lead him to live in the American Midwest, right next to an ominous backyard, where the elderly mother of the nurse lives. The woman is desperate for her daughter, who, since the end of the conflict, has disappeared. The young man embarks on a tense search for the girl, experiencing a particularly dramatic situation, leading to an entirely unexpected conclusion back in Italy.