Lieutenant Mario Ludovici, an army officer, gets himself transferred to a Libyan post when his romance with society girl Cristiana goes on the rocks. Ludovici is looked upon as a weakling by Captain Santelia, the hard-boiled commander of the troops, but after a bitter campaign against a rebel tribe Ludovici proves his true worth and returns as commander when Santelia is mortally wounded. Cristiana arrives and tries to entice him to return to Rome, but he decides to stay in Africa with the army.

Two partners return from the war to find their coffee plantation in the hands of an unscrupulous overseer. One is attracted to an exotic native girl that the overseer has at the plantation.

An Italian blacksmith who emigrated is wounded during the war on the French front, losing his memory. Hospitalized in a German hospital, he recovers it three years later and returns home from Tunisia, happy for the reclamation of the Pontine Marshes and the inauguration of the city of Littoria.