A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.

In a small town in the West of France, during the German Occupation, a room is requisitioned by a Wehrmacht captain, Werner von Ebrennac. The house where he now stays is inhabited by young Jeanne, who makes a living by giving piano lessons, and by her grandfather. Quite upset, the two “hosts” decide to resist the occupier by never speaking a word to him. Now Werner is a lover of France and its culture, and he tries to persuade them that a rapprochement between Germany and France would be beneficial for the two nations. Quite unexpectedly Jeanne, little by little, falls in love with Werner. At the same time, the Francophile officer loses his illusions, realizing at last that what Nazi Germany actually wants is to thrall France and to stifle its culture…

A young girl pretends to be the deceased granddaughter of an ailing grandmother soon to celebrate her birthday. The aged woman does not know her granddaughter has died; thinking she has only left, and the young girl, with her remarkable resemblance, is asked by the family to accompany the grandmother in her last days; posing as her granddaughter in order to cheer her up for her anniversary. The young girl suddenly experiences horrific visions of the dead granddaughter, and her life is threatened when the rest of the family suddenly conspires to kill her. Now in danger, she seeks the truth about the dead girl, while slowly succumbing to insanity as illusion and reality merge.