Film in two eras.1st era: They are not angels. Chronicle of a Free French parachute training camp during the Second World War. 2nd era: Terre de France. A group of paratroopers landed in Brittany sabotages the German installations.

At a mine on the shared edge of France and Germany, an underground explosion leads to the entrapment of a group of French miners. In an effort to save the trapped Frenchmen, German miners Wittkopp and Kasper take it upon themselves to traverse a crumbling war tunnel leading down into the mines. Yet, though the workers harbor no political biases against one another, their callous, less tolerant bosses hope to halt this cross-cultural rescue mission.

A wrongfully convicted man finds himself suspected of a crime committed in his prison.

A visitor from the western front tells young children, in a sober commentary, about the battle of Verdun.

To restore health to their little boy, the Henry couple decided to live in Brittany. The child has a cult of the sea. One day, he follows a band of little Bretons to the high seas and the children would all be drowned if their fathers had not arrived in time.

Young Gervaise has been very unhappy since her friend abandoned her. The man named Coupeau, a sympathetic roofing worker, takes her under his protection and tries to make her forget her dramatic breakup. But Coupeau is unable to free himself from alcoholism and soon Gervaise finds herself on the street.

A Russian exile, believing herself to be a widow, remarries in Paris and sees her first husband appear.

The error of an examining magistrate forever tears apart a happy and united family.