The South Tyrolean mountain guide and architecture student Luis Trenker enlists as a fortress artilleryman at the start of World War I in a stronghold on the Austrian-Italian border. In the structure Verle, which was considered a technical marvel of concrete and steel at the time, Trenker experiences his baptism of fire in May 1915 during the bombardment by Italian siege artillery. For a year, the garrison is mostly defenseless against this bombardment, and not everyone proves capable of handling this mental strain. Trenker's autobiographical novel was first published in 1938 under the title Sperrfort Rocca Alta and was marketed as a hero's novel in line with the spirit of the times. From today's perspective, Trenker's accounts vividly reflect the downfall of the Habsburg Empire through the example of a workforce composed of various nationalities and religions.