On the day of his forced retirement, a grumpy school principal decides, together with his neighbour, to search for a wife on the Internet...

Lieve is a Belgian woman who marries just as World War II is beginning. When the Germans invade, her husband goes off to fight them, but he swiftly returns home after the invasion succeeds. Later, he decides that the Germans are on the right side of things, and goes off to fight for them on the Eastern Front. Soon afterward, a resistance fighter is stranded on her doorway, and she hides him. The two of them fall in love, and the conflicts and joys of this relationship cause Lieve continued grief well after the end of the war.

A veterinarian lives together with his sister and her son in a small village in the Dutch province of North Brabant. He has to cope with gossip and distrust from the villagers.