Tuscany, November 1943. The village of Le Case is miles away from any big city and appears rooted in an earlier century. Seen from there, even the war looks different--it is mostly a matter of waiting, praying, and mourning. As a fierce winter threatens, an order is issued by the local Fascist authorities: all Jews must be rounded up and detained in the bishop's villa to await deportation. Shy, solitary, and taciturn René is the town's cobbler. His only friend is the widow Anna, a woman with whom he has been secretly in love for years. One evening, Anna disappears into the woods. René later learns that a group of Resistance fighters has been ambushed and the survivors are imprisoned in the bishop's villa. A woman is among them, they say, a former inhabitant of Le Case. René can no longer stand by and watch as his town, his country, and his one great love become victims of the Nazis and their Fascist enablers, and, perhaps for the first time in his life, he decides to take action" -- Book jacket.