The story concerns a trio of contemporary French naval officers on patrol in the North Atlantic who reminisce about their experiences in the First Indochina War and the Algiers Putsch.

The title character, Willsdorf, played by Jacques Perrin and based on the famous French Navy officer Pierre Guillaume, had been their charismatic comrade in Vietnam but became alienated when he supported the military coup in Algeria.

Vincent Canby of The New York Times described it as one of the "grandest, most beautiful adventure movies in years", writing that it "may be somewhat old-fashioned in its emphasis on courage, honor and the glory of war, no matter what the cause.

However, it's also wonderfully old-fashioned in its convoluted, romantic narrative, which moves from Vietnam, during the collapse of France's control of Indochina in the 1950's, to East Africa, Algeria, Brittany, Newfoundland and the stormy fishing grounds on the Grand Banks.

[2] In their book France at War in the Twentieth Century: Propaganda, Myth and Metaphor, Valerie Holman and Debra Kelly write that this film and L'Honneur d'un capitaine (1982) are "typical of Pierre Schoendoerffer's literary and filmic oeuvre in their determination to make the case for the defence of the colonial officer corps".