The 1944 Italian campaign by the American army is different from other European campaigns in World War II in that it is fought predominantly at night and largely by Black soldiers, accompanied by other marginalized groups. The brutal terrain terrifies the soldiers whose skeletons will be found by locals over the decades to come, adding to the mountains’ mythology. The mountains have nicknames; the most feared is “the Mountain of the Sleeping Man” (45).

The Sleeping Man’s legend concerns a shepherd, in love with a maiden, who vows to block her view of the sea and the sailor she loves until the maiden changes her mind and loves the shepherd, instead. Two ovals of rock represent his eyes; therein wait German forces who plan to attack the 92nd Buffalo Division. Colonel Jack Driscoll, a white American intelligence officer, spots the German forces via an aerial photograph. Driscoll thinks bitterly of the impending destruction of the 92nd Division, which he views as inevitable, and resents that Black soldiers rely on him.

As he heads to report to his commander, Driscoll notices a Black lieutenant named Birdsong. Birdsong urges Driscoll to hear what a prisoner, currently under interrogation by Nokes, is saying.