Drogo had advanced with the carelessness of early youth along a road which, when one is a child, seems endless, where the years slide by so slowly and softly that their passing goes unnoticed. Drogo, the young lieutenant, is assigned to the defense of an isolated fortress in a mountainous desert region. The garrison’s mission is to fight off any attacks by the Tartars. In reality though, the real enemy is time, passing time, sapping their lives and vitality as they wait and wait for Tartars who never show.