His main day-to-day concerns should be ensuring that he doesn't displease the local German army personnel, and ensuring his wife does not suspect his affairs with his younger waitresses.
But the local leader of the Resistance declares the café is to become a safe house for the hiding of two RAF pilots, shot down and without uniforms - or a word of the French language.
He is also to welcome a forger, recently busted from jail, into the café - who happens to be an old flame of his bedridden mother-in-law.
René is writing his memoirs and needs help to fill in the "big gaps".
This had led to different DVD releases using different titles; and some fans have formed their own unofficial titles for episodes which have not yet been released on DVD.