It was the first of September 1939 and the marriage between Francesco and Anna was being celebrated.
At the end of the ceremony they all headed towards the restaurant to dance and celebrate the two novices. But the party was interrupted by the arrival of a letter addressed to Francesco.
This said he had been drafted and would soon have to leave for the war. Anna burst into tears and the party ended.

The day of the departure of Francesco had arrived, who was accompanied to the station by his wife. They all cried for their husbands, except Anna who instead gave Francesco a picture of her on the back of which was the following sentence: Come back soon, I miss you so much already, your Anna.
At the training camp all the men underwent many physical tests, the best in almost all of them was Francesco. Then he placed in a chosen battalion formed only of men who had been military professionals for many years now. One of these was Simone, who could not bear the fact that all generals praised only Francesco and he, who had always been the best, was put aside.
Simone was envious of Francesco and started to take aim at him and make many jokes.

One day a letter arrived from Anna. She wrote that she was pregnant.
Then Francesco did everything he could to be the best in each trial, to be able to receive the final award of the training: a weekend license. He committed himself so hard that he succeeded in pursuing his goal and obtained the license.
Simone could not bear the fact that Francesco had managed to get the license, which Simone would have wanted for a long time.
So on his return Simone also convinced many of his fellows soldiers that in reality Francesco was only a threat to them and in the middle of the night, together with a couple of them he took a fight. The following morning the general entered the barracks and found Francesco full of beatings and his bed sprinkled with blood. The general asked him who had beaten him, but he did not want to have anyone against him so he said that in the dark of the night he had crashed and that those injuries had been caused.
Some months later they all had to leave for the war and Simone and Francesco found themselves together again. Francesco was very humble and a man of great spirit and although the general had entrusted him with the command, he left the reins of the platoon to Simone.
They started to fight and Simone realized that Francesco was really very capable and also brave, in fact he didn't hold back even in front of the most dangerous tasks. Simone then went to the young boy and with great difficulty, since he was very proud, he apologized and asked him how he could make it up to him. He accepted his apology and said that the only thing he always wanted was to make friends into the platoon . Simone then consented to Francesco's request and began to spend a lot of time together.
Thus between them a strong friendship was born and each one told his own story, in particular Francesco told that he would soon become father and showed Simone the photo of his wife who always kept in the pocket of his jacket to remember what was the reason why he had to survive to war. Moreover it was discovered that Simon was so hard because he had been marked by the death of his wife and the child he was carrying.
A few days later a sudden attack took place and the two friends were hit.
They were urgently taken to the camp hospital, Francesco, at the point of death, made Simone promise that he would take care of his family.

Simone with a serious leg wound was sent home and there he crossed the door of Anna's house with Francesco's body in his hands and with his wife's photo.
Anna burst into tears and Simone comforted her. They began to know each other and a relationship was established between them that went beyond only friendship.
Thus was born the son of Anna, who in memory of his father was called Francesco. Simone and Anna married because at that time an unmarried woman with a child was not well seen. In a short time the two fell in love and raised their son together just as Francesco would have liked.