It is the story of Jiri and Jan, two Czech soldiers, battling alongside the allied forces against the Germans, during World War II in Tobruk, Libya. Jiri Pospichal, eighteen years old, signs up as a volunteer in the Czechoslovak army. His naive ideas about heroism are rawly confronted with the hell of the African desert, complicated relationships in his unit and the ubiquitous threat of death.

Two mismatched lovers struggle to find happiness in an unaccepting society in this drama. Marie is a woman of Romany heritage who works at a hospital in the Czech Republic. Marie wants to quietly assimilate into the culture around her, a notion that offenders her brother Tibor, who is proud of is Romany blood and must often defend himself against insults from his co-workers at a sawmill. One of Tibor's greatest antagonists is Wagan, who is friends with Frantisek, another sawmill employee with a passionate interest in Native American culture. Frantisek meets Marie by chance, and an immediate attraction blooms between them; however, Marie is already engaged to Martin, and Tibor will not hear of her leaving her fiancée for a Czech, especially one who is friends with Wagan. Frantisek discovers Wagan and his other friends are no more accepting of Marie, but their ridicule doesn't change the way he feels about her. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi