In the USA it has been shown on the French language entertainment network TV5MONDE, the MHz Choice streaming service (through Amazon Prime) and Hulu, or for free on some PBS stations.

The village is put into disarray by the occupying German military, which quickly takes control of all aspects of Villeneuve life, including the subjugation of the local government and police.

During the invasion, many residents are either killed or wounded, but the survivors attempt to rebuild from the carnage and try to make sense of the German occupation and the new order that has descended upon their village.

All political dissent and resistance by the occupied villagers is brutally repressed by certain members of the Villeneuve police, the newly formed Milice and the Gestapo, which uses coercion, torture and murder to achieve their goal of a subdued populace they view as inferior.

Other story lines focus upon the formation and coalescence of disparate French resistance groups in the area including the local communist party, resistance fighters, French Forces of the Interior, police sympathetic to the cause and a ragtag group of inexperienced fighters hiding in the surrounding wooded areas, primarily disaffected youths fleeing the German policy of Service du travail obligatoire, a forced labour program that provides manpower for factories based in Germany.