Television movie based on the book by Eric Newby that tells the true story of a captured British soldier and an Italian woman who fall in love in Italy during World War II. Newby's life is saved by the heroic actions of this courageous young woman and a small, brave group of Italian farmers and villagers.On the morning of August 12, 1942, while returning from a daring commando raid on an airfield jammed with German bombers, Eric Newby and four fellow members of Britain's eilite SBS (Special Boat Section) unit were captured in Italy. The and hundreds of other Allied POWs were imprisoned in what has been an orphanage in the small town of Fontanellato near Parma. When the Italian Armistice occurred in September 1943, Newby and his jailed compatriots were released, but their freedom was short-lived; Germany's cracK P16th Panzer Division began ruthlessly searching them out.
Thanks to the Nazi-defying efforts of villagers and farmers in and around Fontanellato, Newby successfuuly avoided being recaptured for three months. Among the many who literally risked their lives to protect and hide Newby (and others) was Wanda Skof, the daughter of a Slovenian anti-fascist, who taught him Italian, smuggled him food and buoyed his spirits during the frightening game of cat-and-mouse played with the Nazis. Newby and Skof slowly, almost imperceptibly, fell in love during those three months.