It is 1944, Normandy, and British commandos are advancing across the French countryside. Camped outside a small town during a lull in the Allied progress, platoon leader Saul (Gabriel Byrne) wanders into the surrounding countryside with his trusted corporal, Charlie (Paul Wyett). Spotting an isolated farmhouse, they come upon a strikingly beautiful woman, Belle (Marianne Basler). Belle coldly rejects Saul's obvious advances. Her discomfort turns into terror with the approach of three armed Frenchmen, who prove to be members of the Resistance fighters, and that they have come to take her away. Belle denies these charges and Saul, seeing an opportunity to win her approval, decides to take her side and protect her. He turns his gun on the Frenchmen, ordering them to back off. The men remind Saul that he will eventually have to leave and that they will be waiting to take Belle at that time. Saul realizes that hopelessness of his desire to save Belle from the Resistance-and he realizes that he has only one optio