In 1997, a group of bandits kidnaps businessman Giuseppe Soffiantini, keeping him imprisoned for 237 days in their hideout in the mountains of Sardinia.

John the Baptist, the prophet of Israel, is imprisoned by Herod, governor of Judea for protesting Herod's marriage to his brother's wife. Jealousies rage and Herod's step-daughter and niece Salome seduces Herod by means of a torrid dance to give her the head of the prophet - but then tries to save the life of the man she has thus condemned. Updated to a WWII setting