Il Caimano del Piave plot
It is 1917, the period of the First World War, when Italy is fighting Austria-Hungary. Lucilla di Torrebruna leaves high school and returns to her father, a colonel in the cavalry, who lives in San Donà di Piave. He tells her that his next wife will be Heléne, a foreign woman. Lucilla takes the news calmly and is happy that her father has found happiness again, although she is received only coldly by her new stepmother. Franco, a young man from Trieste and an old school friend of Lucilla's, with whom she shares a mutual affection, breaks through the Austrian lines and enlists in the Italian Corps, the Bersaglieri. After the Battle of Caporetto, San Donà is occupied by the enemy and the villa of the Torrebruna family becomes the Austrian headquarters.