Bruno (Michele Piccolo) returns for some strange reason to the small French town where he was an informant to the Nazis in this plodding drama. Sophie (Emmanuelle Riva) is a single woman who falls for Bruno partially out of fear of becoming an old maid, but Bruno falls in love with the sister of a man he turned over to the SS. Danielle Darrieux plays Helene, the wife of a man who was arrested because of the informer Bruno. After Bruno is exposed, he is tracked down to an old submarine station where he cowers like a trapped animal.