This drama is set during the darkest days of World War I and the time after it. Mathilde is a pretty and sensitive young women, who suffers from a bad leg, after she had had polio in her childhood. She lives as an orphan with her aunt and uncle in a small French village and is looking forwards to marry Manech, who has beed her friend since early childhood.
But Manech is fighting near the German front and is now one of five soldiers accused of injuring themselves to be sent back home. Such behaviour leads to a death-sentence and the five men are sent to the no man's land between the lines where it is certain that they will be killed.
Mathilde receives a message that Manech was dead, but she cannot believe it, as she is sure she would have felt it if the man she loves would have been killed. Convinced that Manech is alive, she hires a private detective, as soon as the war is over, to find him.