Like Rome Open City, The Bandit examines the layers of violence in which individuals were caught up amid the turmoil of war-torn Italy. Ernesto (Amedeo Nazzari) returns from a German POW camp to find his mother dead, his sister disappeared, his home gone. After a killing, Ernesto becomes a man on the run, linked to the seductive and ruthless Lydia (Anna Magnani) and her criminal gang. Ernesto tries to maintain a sense of honor but his Robin Hood instincts are thwarted at every turn—and Magnani is no Maid Marian as the two become the quarry of a manhunt in the hills outside Turin.