An American is fighting for the Italian army in Italy. He deals with different conflicts and challenges as a foreigner. He gets injured and spends time recuperating. There is a girl. She gets pregnant. They flee via boat to Switzerland. There they make up some lies on the spot and say they are there for winter sport and end up fine. She goes to have the baby. Things don't go well, so they try a C-section. The baby dies. She has complications and she dies. The story is set in a war, but deals primarily with the human challenges that are fairly independent of war. Even the military aspects can be more "human", such as not trusting others that are "different", even if they appear to be officers.
