In 1920, a train full of children leaves Vienna, starving in the aftermath of the war, and crosses the border thanks to a strike and an exception. In Faenza, farm laborers and workers give what little they have for the children of a defeated country, amid the appeals of Anna Kuliscioff and the grumbling of those who thought “our own first.” Among the children is ten-year-old Karl Binder, who falls ill and dies on 2 April. While Europe is split between victors and vanquished, poor families in Faenza choose to take in the children of the enemy. When Karl dies, two hundred women take the place of his mother: peace can begin with an open door.