On 16 January 1944, a reconnaissance pilot survives a plane crash in Delahaut in the Nazi occupied Belgium. The boy Jean Benoit finds the wounded pilot and brings him to the house of Claire and Henri Daussois that belong to the Maquis Resistance. Sooner Major Theodore 'Ted' Brice is recovered and tells that he needs to retrieve a book of codes, but the airplane is guarded by the Nazis. Meanwhile Ted and Claire fall in love with each other. When three German guards that are protecting the debris of the airplane are executed, the Nazis select a group of villagers and hang them in a barn. When Henri finds that Ted and Claire are having a love affair, he betrays the pilot with tragic consequences.