Rocco had fought disciplined and unconditionally for the liberation of Italy from fascism during the harsh years of emigration for the Communist Party. Immediately after the victory, he is sent back to his old homeland, to the villages of Abruzzo, to represent the interests of the poor mountain farmers and day laborers as an official and to implement the party's policies. His experiences with the adventurous, archaic-anarchic figures in the valleys of Abruzzo, with the lives of the poor and exploited cafoni in the fields, and above all, his confrontation with Stalinism lead him to an ever-greater distance from the Communist Party.