Wolfgang and Helberg are brothers from the South Tyrol who go their separate ways with the advent of Nazi Fascism. Shortly after Helberg’s marriage to the beautiful Marthe, Wolfgang decides to join the German army because he believes in Adolf Hitler’s dream of conquering the world.
We next find the brothers on the eve of September 8, 1943 the day the Armistice was signed by the Italians. Wolfgang and Helberg are both on the Island of Cefalonia and are fighting on opposing armies. The explosion of a bomb wounds Helberg mortally and he dies in the arms of his brother. There is just enough time for a reconciliation between the two when Helberg tells Wolfgang of his wife who fled to Germany and of a daughter who is waiting to see her father, Helberg, one day in Berlin. Wolfgang survives the rest of the war and at its conclusion, returns to Marthe while Helberg remains forever in a burial plot on the island of Cefalonia..