The dark years, those of war. This film, which combines fiction and archives, tells the story of the unusual trajectory of a young man from the provinces. Prisoner of war, escaped at the age of 24, he found himself in Vichy, capital of the French state. A convinced Pétainist, he will become a leading resistance fighter.

Based on the model of documentary fiction (alternating period films, interviews and re-enactments with actors), the film begins on September 8, 1961 with the failure of the Pont-sur-Seine attack on a road convoy carrying Charles de Gaulle, then President of the Republic, and continues with the slow preparation, the occurrence and the consequences of the Petit-Clamart attack on August 22, 1962.

Jacqueline is married to Maître André, but is in love with her lover Clavaroche, a fiery officer stationed in the city. In order to avert Master André's suspicions about his wife's fidelity, Clavaroche suggests that Jacqueline take a "Chandelier".