Il Burattino begins in April 1942 and tells the story of Tino, an orphan native to Varallo Sesia, in Northern Piedmont, Italy. Having always been perceived as the weaker one next to his older friend Romero, the boy is anxious to break away from his brotherly protection to carve out a life for himself. Romero wants the two to escape the draft by hiking into neutral Switzerland, but propaganda has secretly fed Tino the hope and inspiration he needs to go his own way, which leads to him joining the 2nd Infantry Division in Novara, bound for the bleak Eastern front.

With him, he brings a puppet, il burattino (in Italian), which was a birthday gift from his friend, Milana, who adores the boy. The puppet is a constant source of entertainment for other soldiers, as the boy uses it to boost morale through imitating the king and Mussolini in ways that become increasingly derogatory and slanderous as conditions worsen. Partly because of this, a companionship is formed between Tino and an older soldier named Virgil.