Summary Here we are in the summer of 1949, and the Civil War is finally winding down. A small group of partisans from the organization, E.L.A.S. is forced to abandon Mount Taygetus and head for the sea. Behind them everything has been destroyed; nobody is waiting for them, and they have little to hope for. In their desperate flight to the sea, Captain Nikitas and the eight other men are annihilated by the re-constituted national army and the armed villagers. The only survivor among them is the youngest of the team, eighteen-year-old Nasios.