The troubles in the life of a Frenchman in Lorraine began when he was four years old. Eduard witnessed his father's suicide and withdrew into himself for a time until he could again feel affection for another person, and then it was only for his younger sister Eliane. He had no plan to ever fall in love. Not what one would expect from a typical Frenchman but then Eduard was not typical. At the age of fourteen his mother revealed that his real father was a German soldier who served in occupied France during the Great War. Five years later a young lady, who is vehemently anti-German, falls in love with him and ignites a fire that will burn with such intensity that without her, life would seem cold and dark. They come of age just as World War II begins. Eduard says nothing of his father because Laure-Anne was his life. He could not imagine living without her; withdrawal would not be an option. They must just go through life together, forever. That was the plan . . .