Synopsis
Andrea Brandi is a talented young engineer who, taken by the desire to see Trento and Trieste free, decides to leave his comfortable world to join the army during the First World War. Opposed by his family, especially his father, before leaving he meets Diletta, a doctor, who will be the woman of his life. After joining a desperate mission at the front, he is saved from toxic gases by the soldier-priest Tommaso who will become his close friend and will save his life again. Andrea finds himself inside a military hospital, assisted by Diletta’s father and Diletta herself. The two fall in love, and Andrea will find the strength to start a company of communication instruments and technology, with the financial support of his initially reluctant father. Andrea and Diletta get finally married. Life seems to finally proceed peacefully, until their young child gets killed by a car driven by a young woman, Mrs. De’ Santis. She’s a forerunner of feminism who, having lost her husband during the demonstrations between interventionists and pacifists, decides to take his place and carry on with his political battles, taking up not only a male look by wearing man’s clothes, but also his passionate style. Her choices and actions will influence several events happening in the community. In 1929, the great economic crisis affects the entire world. Andrea fights to cope with the sudden financial collapse, but like for many other entrepreneurs, his business is soon at stake, with no more money to pay the employees. Poverty upsets the family psychological harmony, when Andrea’s parents lose their savings too. In despair, Andrea attempts suicide. Again, for the second time he is saved by Tommaso, his priest friend. In the first Christmas night after the end of Second World War, Andrea finishes his book of memories, “On My Shoulders”: his family finally is reunited and his hopes are renewed. Saint Leopold, the small Croatian friar, has managed to save the community through his interventions, his advices, his explanations and his simple presence, underlying the lives of the others, like a real guardian angel.