An Italian woman conducts a desperate search for her husband, a soldier considered missing in action in Russia during WWII.

At the end of World War II, Giovanna, a war bride living near Milan refuses to accept that her husband, Antonio, missing on the Russian front, is dead. There's a flashback to their brief courtship near her hometown of Naples, his 12-day leave to marry her, ruses to keep from deployment, and the ultimate farewell. Some years after the war, still with no word from Antonio, Giovanna goes to Russia to find him, starting in the town near the winter battle when he disappeared. Armed with his photograph, what will she find?—<[email protected]>

In Naples, in World War II, Giovanna has a torrid love affair with the soldier Antonio, who is ready to embark to Africa. Giovanna proposes that they get married in order to obtain a twelve day pass. Then Antonio pretends that he is insane and he is sent to an asylum. However, the doctors discover the farce and they give Antonio an ultimatum: to go to the Russian front as volunteer instead of being sued. When Antonio is missing in action in Russia, Giovanna does not accept that he is dead. Years after the end of the war, Giovanna travels to Russia with a picture of Antonio to try and find him out in the countryside. When she finds a lead in a village, her hope becomes disappointment with truth about his disappearance.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil