Musim dingin tahun 1917, front Timur Laut, bentrokan terakhir Perang Besar. Benteng Italia yang terletak 1.800 meter di atas permukaan laut, di dataran tinggi Asiago, digambarkan dalam novel Mario Rigoni Stern. Di mana-mana turun salju; parit Austria sangat dekat sehingga Anda dapat mendengar napas tentara musuh. Seratus tahun sejak pecahnya Perang Dunia I, maestro Ermanno Olmi menjelaskan

The winter of 1917, the North-East front, the final clashes of the Great War. An Italian stronghold situated at 1800 metres above sea level, on the Asiago plateau, described in the novels of Mario Rigoni Stern. It’s snowing everywhere; the Austrian trenches are so close that you can hear the enemy soldiers breathing. A hundred years since the outbreak of World War I, maestro Ermanno Olmi describes with Torneranno i prati his vision of a conflict that cost the lives of 16 million human beings, just as it was brought back to him by the memory of his father, called to arms at 19 years of age, to find himself within the bloodbath of Carso and Piave. A drama that scarred his youth and the rest of his life, just like millions of others.