The Siliwangi Division, originally headquartered in West Java, is temporarily based in Central Java owing to the Renville Agreement. After putting down a communist rebellion in Madiun, killing numerous members of the Communist Party of Indonesia in the process, they are on a break. The division's leader, Captain Sudarto, meets with an Indo woman named Connie, who is originally from Bandung. The two become fast friends, but after a Dutch attack is launched on the capital at Yogyakarta, they must separate as the division heads westwards. Captain Sudarto leads his men – together with women and children – over more than , resting during the day and traveling in the morning and evening. They face hunger, a shortage of supplies, and Dutch airstrikes. Along the way, Sudarto begins to fall in love with a nurse named Widya.