In July 1944, the Germans discover a link between a small country barracks of the Arma dei Carabinieri Reali and the Resistance and one of the carabinieri, Sebastiano Pandolfo, and a young partisan are shot. Three other carabinieri (Alberto La Rocca, Vittorio Marandola, and Fulvio Sbarretti) manage to escape and try to join the Resistance, but the Germans take ten civilians hostage and threaten to kill them if the carabinieri do not surrender. Upon hearing the news, just before they reach the partisans, the three carabinieri choose to surrender to honor the role of the carabinieri as guarantors of legality and justice, thus saving the lives of the ten hostages.