Young Giovanni arrives at the bleak border area of the Tartar Steppe where he is to take an assignment at Fort Bastiani. As his length of service stretches from months into years, he continues to wait for the enemy to advance across the desert. Despite, or because, they tell him he is free to leave, he waits for one great and glorious endeavour.

Young Giovanni arrives at the bleak border area of the Tartar Steppe where he is to take an assignment at Fort Bastiani. As his length of service stretches from months into years, he continues to wait for the enemy to advance across the desert. Despite, or because, they tell him he is free to leave, he waits for one great and glorious endeavour.