A US submarine and its crew are captured by the Japanese on the eve of a major WWII battle.

It is 1943 in Paris. Like so many others, the Bourbelle family's home has been taken over by the Germans and they now live in their cellar. Little do they know that the son, Guy-Hubert Bourdelle, is far from being the cowardly hairdresser he pretends. He is in truth the Germans’ most feared opponent: le super-résistant!

Based on a true story, this film shares with us a decade in the lives of Jimmie Lewallen and his wife Carrie as they experience the joys of love and marriage alongside the tragedies of war and poverty (1939-1949).

Downtrodden wife and mother Nella's life takes an unexpected turn for the better after she joins the Women's Voluntary Service office in Barrow-in-Furness during the Second World War. However, her new-found happiness is shattered when her son Cliff leaves to join the troops - provoking a painful confrontation with her husband Will.

Through flashbacks going as far back as the end of WW1, the story of a Nazi war criminal is exposed during his trial.