Synopsis
The story centers on Cesira (Loren), a widowed Roman shopkeeper, and Rosetta (Brown), her devoutly religious twelve-year-old daughter, during World War II. To escape the Allied bombing of Rome, Cesira and her daughter flee southern Lazio for her native Ciociaria, a rural, mountainous province of central Italy.
After they arrive at Ciociaria, Cesira attracts the attention of a young local intellectual with communist sympathies named Michele (Jean-Paul Belmondo). However, Michele is eventually taken prisoner by a company of German soldiers, who hope to use him as a guide to the mountainous terrain. Later, Cesira and Rosetta learn that he has been shot and killed by the same soldiers who took him hostage.
After the Italian liberation, mother and daughter decide to go back to Rome. After experiencing mild harassment and propositioning throughout their journey, they fall subject to an unexpected tragedy. As they rest in a bombed-out church, they are captured and gang raped by Goumiers (Moroccan allied soldiers) serving in the Free French forces under Alphonse Juin. Rosetta is particularly traumatized and has conflicting feelings for her mother. Eventually the two succeed in re-establishing the bond that linked them.
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