As the Greek-Italian War breaks out, Lieutenant Dimitris Nikolaou is forced to leave his Italian fiancée, the Italian ambassador's daughter, Stella Salvatore, to do his part in the snow-capped Greek-Albanian border. With the collapse of the front in the forts of the "Metaxas Line", and the invasion of the Germans, the SS commander, Lieutenant Hermann von Schweitzer, requisitions Dimitris' family house and tries to woo Stella, whose father is now a colonel in the Italian army. But, Dimitris continues to fight, and when he secretly returns to Greece, he plans to organise a wide-scale sabotage. Then, when he witnesses firsthand the situation in Greece, Dimitris comes to realise that nothing will ever be the same again and that the future between him and Stella is uncertain.