During World War II, a squad of five American soldiers become lost in Tunisia and are killed one by one in fights with German units. Finally only one man, Private Russo, is left, in the midst of a mine field, together with a German officer, locked in a stalemate. Russo has water, while the German claims to have a map revealing the mine positions. So Russo agrees to swap water for the map, but the German officer tries to double-cross him. This was Burt Topper's debut film, made on 16mm on weekends together with some friends in Indio, California. It was also Wally Campo's debut film, as well as script supervisor Joyce King's.

Major Charles Forsythe is a Vietnam veteran U.S. Army officer stationed near Rome. He is a brutal, if effective, commander who was "fragged" by his own men in Vietnam. When he is denied promotion because of the number of men injured during his training exercises, he takes out his anger by beating his pregnant wife Sarah. She miscarries. On her release from the hospital, Sarah is determined to get back into shape and begins running. She meets Alan Morani a former Olympic runner who is a paraplegic as the result of a car accident. Morani offers to coach Sarah to run in the Rome marathon, a race which her husband has won two years in a row. Sarah realizes that winning the race is the best way to avenge the death of her baby and destroy her husband's ego.