In 1937, Peppe Manzella is condemned to confinement on Favignana Island for having helped a beggar who was also a veteran of World War I. At the end of the Second World War, the outcast can at last return to his native village of Zabut in Sicily. Unfortunately things go awry again for him, for while participating in a demonstration by peasants claiming for ownership of arable lands left uncultivated, Peppe kills in anger the man responsible for his exile. He runs away and goes underground.