18 year old Sam Abramski has just taken part in the Battle of Cable Street in October 1936, stopping Oswald Mosley’s fascist Blackshirts from marching through London’s Jewish East End. Caught up in the political heat of the moment and against his mother’s wishes, he decides to join the International Brigades to help defend the newly elected Spanish Republic against the fascist military coup led by General Franco. Sam’s mother Rebecca misses him so much, that after a time she too decides to leave for Spain to find him. She joins the fight for democracy, working as a nurse while searching for Sam.

On the way to Spain, Sam meets Jack, a somewhat cynical older campaigner and Great War veteran, as well as George who is a pragmatic idealist whose beliefs have been forged in depression of the 1930s; both of them take Sam under their wing. Sam also meets Pilar, a young woman trying to survive in war torn Barcelona, and the two are instantly and deeply attracted to each other.

Once in Spain Rebecca meets Ernesto, a charismatic Anarchist, who helps her in the search for Sammy; they too fall in love. We follow Sam and Rebecca as they fight for their beliefs through the turmoil and challenges of the civil war.

Ultimately the International Brigades have to leave Spain, and the Spanish people give them an emotional goodbye led by La Pasionaria, the inspirational mother of Republican Spain. At the end of the play, not all of the characters have survived, but they have all become heroes, each in their own way.