Lepetit, an ambitious and determined man, is named the new CEO of a department store. His mission is to improve the store's financial position. He decides that the human factor will be his catchword and introduces new methods, which he also applied to himself. But tensions slowly arise between members of the staff.
In this routine drama, two men (a crass Brit and a slow Frenchman) decide to evade the war in 1917, but their flight on a stolen boat goes awry and they end up on the coast of France, close to the fighting they wanted to leave behind. Once on shore, they make the acquaintance of a like-minded young widow who begins an affair with both men (she just wants to have a child by each) -- but their unusually idyllic existence is threatened with imminent tragedy as the French army advances ever closer.
