The film presents a pacifist, anti-war narrative and, in a propaganda style, identifies the West as the source of a potential, new armed conflict.
A 13-year-old Bernard spends his summer holidays on the Atlantic coast where he makes friends with Gaston, whom he helps to collect the molluscs he catches. Together, they follow a German – Gerhard who’s hiding in a destroyed bunker and who escaped from the French Foreign Legion after he got fed up with violence and killing. Fishermen who have had enough of war and the military also want to help. Bernard realizes the role of the French soldiers in Indochina. The boy’s father who’s keen on the military, disapproves of his new friends – fishermen and arranges a hasty return to Paris. The fishermen hide Gerhard and Bernard keeps the secret to himself.
