Like his adversary PETER, FRANZ is drafted into the military as a militiaman to fight at the front in the Dolomites. FRANZ is the offspring of an Italian-German marriage and is therefore faced with prejudice and xenophobia in his village. With war against the Italians impending over them the situation is becoming much worse. PETER fuels the hostile sentiments against FRANZ and his family even further.
PETER is a friend of ANNA’s. To him it is clear that he loves her. Anna is not sure. She is the physician’s daughter and soon to become a nurse in the military hospital. And she is attracted to Franz whom Peter has always disliked. Now the two are rivals, turn into bitter enemies and eventually find themselves in the same unit.
In the war they have to close ranks and even turn into comrades in rock and ice up in the mountains. Both get to know their limits and exceed them to become friends in the end. This friendship helps them to assert themselves in the drama and privation of the war against both the enemy and cruel superiors, as well as against their greatest opponent – the relentless and extreme conditions in the high mountains. And on top of that they also have to come to terms with their own weaknesses.
However, only one of the two friends returns from this ordeal at the front in the RED WALL...