When Ice Ran Red

Carmela DeMitri's struggle to survive brings 1917 and the World War in the Italian Alps to life. In search of her great love, she sails to Italy from New York, but discovers that the Alpini have shanghaied him. Determined to find Ben, Carmela accepts help from a soldier (Baldovino) but soon learns that he intends to rape her and murder Ben. Loaded down like a donkey, Ben staggers up Marmolada, an icy 10,000-foot mountain, and he fights for the Alpini as they take the high trenches. Desperate, Carmela escapes from Baldovino then talks her way out of an icy prison under Marmolada's glacier after being captured by the Austrians. Close to exhaustion, she finds Ben sitting in the rubble of a huge avalanche mourning the loss of men he's come to respect. Carmela vows never to touch another gun after killing several men, but she has to defend herself and Ben.