Tiller of the Earth is the story of Luciano Martello, an ordinary man with an unyielding determination to provide his family a life of plenitude no matter the cost. A man with a monomaniacal obsession: America The impoverished mountain village Luciano Martello inhabits has always regarded America as the only viable, realistic option to escape the emotionally and physically wrenching cycle of poverty passed on from one generation to the next. Luciano Martello is determined to spare his son this fate. But Luciano Martello's path to emigration is strewn with numerous obstacles. He must somehow obtain the money to finance the voyage, survive the Battle of Tobruk and a British POW camp in the Egyptian desert during World War Two, restore the family's honor by avenging his sister's death at the hands of the powerful baron, and overcome his wife's reluctance to leave behind the village she loves.