During the First World War the occupation armies in Albania undertake some archeological excavations and plunder antique monuments. They meet firm resistance of the Albanians who revolt against the unjust appropriation of cultural treasures and who start to undermine the excavations whereever possible. After a while the occupation army knows who the saboteurs are and sentences them to death. But the men remain in the memory of the peasants who witnessed the events and of future generations as the "Martyrs of the Monuments".