The film, which deals with the military service seen as a traumatic experience, marked the switch of Risi from low-wattage comedies to more complex themes.

[1] Before coming into production, the screenplay was submitted to the Ministry of Defence to obtain the necessary permits to shoot in real barracks, but it received an outright refusal, as the Ministry feared to exacerbate the already harsh controversy that at the time had invested the Army because of a chain of suicides in the barracks as a result of hazing.

In a barracks in Pontebba, various young people who differ from each other in character, ways of life and social background are gathered for military service.

The officer vents on the soldier his existential dissatisfaction, the disappointment for a lack of promotion, the morbid jealousy for his wife Anna.

On the very last night, the young soldiers, fully armed, are called for a strange exercise and leave by plane to an unknown destination.