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The action takes place in the years 1940-1941 in the East African military theater, focusing on the final years of the Italian occupation of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Pratt's central character is the Polish lieutenant Koinsky, a member of the "Long Range Desert Group," the British paramilitary unit created in Egypt with a scorpion as its emblem. The drawings and psychological renderings of the many minor characters that surround the protagonist are masterly, each well-defined and nuanced: from the fascist Lieutenant Stella (opportunistic but with moments of moral awareness), the fierce and uncompromising desert warrior Danakil Cush (who also appears in the Corto Maltese series), Captain Palchetti (a wild opera lover who commands a fort in the desert as if he were on stage), to the French Lieutenant De la Motte (who lives for the memory of Adrienne, a woman beloved by many, too many men). The only woman to appear is Madame Brezza (alias Clelia Avantini), who runs a brothel in Djibouti and is beautifully characterised by Pratt in just a few strokes that delineate a unique literary personality.