A group of World War II survivors from all over Italy come together to form a sort of “commune”. They want to forget the hardships of the conflict they have just lived through and set about sorting out the issue of the day-to-day survival. They take over a bombed-out village and make it their home and refuge against all the ugliness and brutality in the world.

From the novel Le donne di Messina by Elio Vittorini.