1860. 1860. From Quarto, Giuseppe Garibaldi begins the adventure of the Thousand, surrounded by the enthusiasm of young idealists who have arrived from all regions of Italy, and with his loyal group of officers, among whom a new figure stands out: the Palermo-born Colonel Vincenzo Giordano Orsini. Among the many soldiers recruited were two Sicilians: Domenico Tricò, a peasant who had emigrated to the North, and Rosario Spitale, a magician. Having landed in Sicily, at Marsala, the Thousand began fighting the Bourbon army, whose numerical superiority was immediately apparent. Under these conditions, it seemed almost impossible for the general to breach the enemy defences and penetrate into Palermo. But when he is almost forced to retreat, Garibaldi devises an ingenious plan. He entrusts a diversionary manoeuvre to Colonel Orsini, who forms a column of wounded soldiers with a small group of soldiers, who are given the extremely delicate task of making Jean-Luc Von Mechel, the Swiss commander of the royal army, believe that the general was retreating into the interior of the island. Thus begins a game of chess played on the edge of the unpredictable, the final outcome of which would be paradoxical and surprising.
