Believing that military experience will make him a strong and respected man, Jorge, a young Ecuadorian, joins the armed forces in the midst of his country's 1941 border war with Peru. Captured and imprisoned by enemy forces and given up for dead, Jorge faces neglect, hunger, and, possibly, even death as he recovers from his injuries. He will soon have to choose between escaping with fellow prisoner Hugo or staying at the camp under the care of the Peruvian nurse Dolores, with whom he's fallen in love.