On August 5, 1944, in Brittany, civilians fell into the hands of the German army. Among them, Jean Palu, a man like the others, who looks back on his life. Between failure and illness, he paints a bitter picture of his life.

In La Roche-sur-Mer, the factory where the father of Mathieu's boyfriend, a 12-year-old boy, works will close. Desperate, the man tries to commit suicide and is saved by his son.

Sophie, a quiet and shy maid working for an upper-class French family, finds a friend in the energetic and uncompromising postmaster Jeanne, who encourages her to stand up against her bourgeois employers.

Inspector Lavardin is called to a provincial village to investigate a murder – only to find that one of his ex-lovers is the victim’s widow.