It is 1943 and Wenk, a young German soldier guarding the Normandy coast, finds himself in a war where the main enemies are loneliness and misery. Corruption is rampant in the High Command: supplies are being siphoned off, and starving, exhausted soldiers must cross their own mine fields to steal potatoes from the neighboring French farms. Against all army rank and protocol, Wenk forms a friendship with Lieutenant Schelling, whose protests on behalf of his men have incurred the wrath of another officer.