The chiefs of the Greeks abandon the brave warrior Philoktetes on a desert island because they can't stand his shouts and his groans after the bite of a snake. After ten years they return to the island because they learn from an oracle that only Philoktetes can conquer the town of Troy by using the unbeaten bows of Hercules. With a plan of Ulysses, Neoptolemus will pretend that he is disappointed by the Achaeans so as to win the trust of the hero and to drug him to the boat to take the guns. When he realizes the trick he gets outraged and demands to give him the guns back but in the end Hercules's appearance will give the ending to the drama and thus Philoktetes will follow the Greeks to Troy. A tragedy which explores the human heart and treats the matter of patriotism, of the individual and collective responsibility and purposefulness, obliging us certain times to strike out precepts of honor and ethics.