The soldiers are ordered to be kind to the populace, since the West German High Command wishes the French to forget the atrocities that were committed during the Second World War.
A local journalist who researches the event discovers that West German General Rucker ordered the massacre, but he is mysteriously murdered.
Klaus defies his commanding officer Siebert, who instructs him to steal the documents implicating Rucker, and hands the evidence over to Jeanne.
The film was one of eight major DEFA pictures made between 1959 and 1964 that centered on the theme of the Cold War, with an underlying message that East Germany had to defend itself from the West.
[2] Director Kurt Maetzig told an interviewer that he greatly disliked the script he filmed, and the work on At A French Fireside eventually inspired him to make the controversial The Rabbit Is Me.