Cesira (Loren) is a widowed shopkeeper, raising her devoutly religious twelve-year-old daughter, Rosetta (Brown), in Rome during World War II.

Following the bombing of Rome, mother and daughter flee to Cesira's native Ciociaria, a rural, mountainous province of central Italy.

The night before they go, Cesira has sex with Giovanni (Vallone), a married coal dealer in her neighbourhood, who agrees to look after her store in her absence.

After they arrive at Ciociaria, Cesira attracts the attention of Michele (Belmondo), a young local intellectual with communist sympathies.

On the way, the two are gang-raped inside a church by a group of Moroccan Goumiers – soldiers attached to the invading Allied Armies in Italy.

Rosetta is traumatized by the unwilling loss of her virginity, becoming detached and distant from her mother and no longer an innocent child.

[8] However, De Sica says it was his decision for Loren to play Magnani's role and cast a younger performer as the daughter for great poignancy.

If, in doing this, we moved away from original line of Moravia, we had better opportunity to stress, to underline, the monstrous impact of war on people.

[9] In a 2017 interview, Brown stated that Loren protected her from some of the underlying implications of the rape scene in the film, and also stated that director De Sica brought her to tears for the climactic final scene of hearing that Belmondo's character has died, by saying that a telegram had arrived saying that Brown's parents had died in an accident.

Joseph E. Levine (Embassy Pictures) agreed to buy US release rights after watching only nine minutes of the film.

It was directed by Risi, and starred Loren, Robert Loggia, Leonardo Ferrantini, Dario Ghirardi, and Sydney Penny.