Summer 1943. The announcement of the STO, an order for all young French men to be taken into forced labour in Germany shakes Villeneuve and all of France to its core.
Avoiding capture, Antoine and Claude and a small band of others head into the forest to live in freedom but soon find the hunger, cold and boredom overwhelming.
In the village the Resistance grow bolder and bolder, but the new mayor, Chassagne, makes every effort to support the STO and hunt the guerrillas and repression in the village increases day by day.