It is 1946. With the Allies fast approaching De Luca and his fellow policemen flee into the countryside. Posing as partisans they get caught up in a checkpoint skirmish that ends in bloodshed. The policemen scatter and escape and De Luca stumbles into a small mountain village posing as a government engineer. A partisan policeman befriends him and enlists his help to solve the murder of a highly respected villager.