A failed escape operation leaves Alex bereaved and hidden near Limoges. He is absorbed into a Resistance environment divided among Gaullists, communists and local groups whose plans for liberation are inseparable from their ambitions for post-war France.
Sabotage, assassination and retaliation test Alex’s judgement while grief makes violence easier to accept and harder to control. He must decide whether loyalty to a cause excuses revenge, and which faction can be trusted when every operation is also part of a struggle over the political future.