 The film is based on the Massacre of Oradour-sur-Glane in 1944.In Montauban in 1944, during the German retreat from France, Julien Dandieu is an aging, embittered surgeon in the local hospital.Frightened by the German army entering Montauban, Dandieu asks his friend Francois to drive his wife and his daughter to the remote village where he owns a chateau.