The book is a narrative regarding the role of residents of the French village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, located in the mountains of the eastern Massif Central, in helping to secure the lives of Jewish people during the Second World War.

The latter was a mainly Protestant organisation, which is related to one of the wider factors that helped ensure that people tried to secure the safety of the Jews: there was a long tradition in the area of Protestantism, including a Huguenot and Darbyist history, which had suffered persecution itself.

[3] The questions of morality that arise from the story are particularly important given the view propagated by Jacques Chirac that Chambon was in fact "our country's conscience".

[7] Yale historian, Carolyn Dean, writes, that Moorehead "has done us the great service of unveiling the real lives behind the myth and in demonstrating that fallible human beings are far more interesting and dramatic figures than those who make up the stuff of legends.".

[8] Despite this, the book has also been severely criticised by Pierre Sauvage, whose 1989 film Weapons of the Spirit told the story of Protestant pastors André Trocmé and Edouard Theis [fr] and their role in the resistance effort.