November 12, 2003: A suicide attack on the Italian military base in Nasiriyah, Iraq, leaves twenty-eight dead, including nineteen Italian soldiers and civilians, and scores more wounded. Among the survivors is a young, brash, and in some ways na ve Roman filmmaker, Aureliano Amadei, who has arrived only the day before to scout locations for a movie. Gravely injured in the attack, Amadei uses the long months of his recovery to reflect upon the circumstances...