在这部大橡树剧情/战争片中,保罗在附近的小学上学，但是他发现老师只教给他们三个词:信任、服从和战斗，而班里的孩子都会唱一首歌颂法西斯的歌曲。保罗感到自己和其他的孩子不太一样，原来父亲是个反战派，他不让自己的儿子穿"效忠元首"的黑色校服，不想让他被法西斯的思想所统治。
与此同时，一家人的生活变得窘迫起来，大人和孩子都要到田野里挖野菜，然后煮野菜汤喝，每三天才能得到的一个鸡蛋留给了最小的孩子。爷爷向教堂里的牧师忏悔的时候被保罗他们发现，原来爷爷暗暗资助12个反法西斯的战士，把他们藏在了教堂里，两头牛都被宰杀。但是因为还是缺乏食物，最后他把仅有的驴也处理掉了。
战争波及到了小镇，保罗的父亲马利亚诺决定带家人返回罗马，可是在半路却碰到了巡查的德国士兵，只好下车逃走。而母亲带他们回到罗马后，为了支付房租不得不把自己心爱的钢琴折价卖掉，这时，他们又听到了保罗的叔父死亡的消息……
In 1943, Vincenzio and Maria take their children to his father's Tuscan farm. Vincenzio commutes to Rome where he's a physician and, in the hospital basement, prints an anti-Fascist paper. His brother is in the Resistance; his father supplies food to a local monastery where 12 fugitives hide. All is seen through the eyes of the oldest child, Paulo, who's about 7 and the only lad at school who doesn't wear a Fascist Youth uniform. For Paulo and his siblings, it's great fun playing with their nonno, finding herbs in the fields, watching a maid's tryst with a soldier, teasing a silent monk. Then the war reaches the farm when Italy surrenders and the Germans exact revenge.
