The story, released the first time in 1929, tells the story of a girl, Edda Marty, who enters (the only woman) to be part of a class of boys, to attend the last year of high school, 8th gymnasium in Trieste. Edda is a wild child, free and non-conformist, in contrast to his provincial family environment and a bit 'narrow-minded. Despite his efforts to establish a friendly relationship with her companions, its presence provokes disturbances, falling in love, a suicide attempt. Male protagonist is George Antero, with whom Edda will live a tender story of teenage love. The intervention of the possessive and selfish mother of Antero, that will ask to Edda to not accept the boy's love, and subsequent misunderstandings between the two lovers (also a result of the attempted suicide of another comrade, always for love Edda), will put an end to the history between the two protagonists. After the exams, the boys find themselves in a farewell dinner tinged with melancholy and sad omens for signs of an impending war. Dinner, in fact, held June 28, 1914, day of the tragic attack in Sarajevo, universally known as the fuse that sparked the huge fire of the Great War. In the film directed by Franco Giraldi, the story is set in 1913, while the story takes place in 1910, when Trieste enrollment in public school is also open to girls.