Duke Philippe marries Cristina, the daughter of a fisherman. But his brothers, seeing that they would be cut from the family inheritance set to go to Cristina, decide to get rid of her by imprisoning her in a tower and making the duke believe she died.

Rossellini’s biopic of the postwar Christian Democrat leader, Alcide De Gaspari, who was responsible for keeping the Communists out of power in the years that followed the fall of fascism.