After the death of a friend in a political protest, for which he feels guilty, Jean quits the Party and concentrates on trade union activities.

Hélène is a young designer who works in her family's confectionery shop and is dissatisfied with her conventional romance with her fiance Paul.

When France enters World War II, Jean, conceding the need for violent conflict to effect change, becomes a soldier.

From Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews, who gave the film a C−: A poorly done adaptation of Simone de Beauvoir's 1945 novel about the growth and self-sacrifice of a selfish American during the German Occupation of Paris.

Claude Chabrol has no feel or interest for the Occupation subject matter, being more of a satirist of the bourgeois he seems like a fish out of water in this venture.