In June 1940, as Benito Mussolini took Italy into war against the Allied Powers, the Canadian authorities launched a series of raids against Italian-Canadians from coast to coast. Suspected of being a danger to national security, several hundreds of them were arrested and interned without trial. Most of the Italian-Canadian population was declared "enemy alien," community centres were shut, and a multitude of families thrown into hardship and despair. The Canadian Duce narrates this little-known chapter of Canadian history through the experience of a Montreal Italian-Canadian family -- the Carusos -- and through the coming of age story of their teenaged son Mario.