An upper-class corporal from Paris is captured by the Germans when they invade France in 1940. Assisted and accompanied by a diverse bunch of characters, the corporal tries to escape from prison camps, sometimes making it a few yards, sometimes reaching the French border.

The penultimate feature from Renoir, which he considered to be his saddest film, is a darkly humorous WW2 tale, co-written by Guy Lefrance, who brought his experiences in a German POW camp to the page. A quasi-sequel to Grand Illusion, Jean-Pierre Cassel stars in this beautiful and humanist story.