One week before the creation of the state of Israel in May 1948, a freight ship, the "Kedma", with a group of jewish concentration camp survivors of several nations, arrived on the coast of Palestine. There, they are received with open hostility. British troops are trying to forbid them from disembarking with use of gunfire, while on the other side the Jewish underground army known as the Palmach stood by to defend them. Only a small group actually succeeds in landing on the beach, while the rest were given weapons and asked to fight alongside the Palmach against the British and Palestinians. The now incipient battle took over the next several days.