Colonel Moresco and twelve of his soldiers occupy a Sicilian hospital, taking all patients and doctors hostages and giving an ultimatum to the Italian Government: if Rome will not admit its role in having hided the proofs of the use of depleted uranium's weapons in the Balcan Wars and the subsequent, countless cases of cancer among the soldiers of the Italian Army due to it within 56 hours, all of the hostages will be killed. The negotiator Paolo Manfredi is called in order to save the hostages, not knowing that his wife and his daughter are among them.