Eva is a Jewish literature teacher at a high school in Bordeaux, France, after the Second World War. During the war her whole family was sent to the German extermination camps by French collaborators. Eva survived by chance. Then by chance a new girl enters her class, a girl who resembles Eva's dead daughter.

Arnaud, facing an uncertain future and a dearth of choices in a small French coastal town, meets and falls for the apocalyptic-minded Madeleine, who joins an army boot camp to learn military and survival skills to prepare for the upcoming environmental collapse. Intrigued and excited by Madeleine’s wild ideas, Arnaud signs up for the boot camp himself. They soon realize that the boot camp is harder than they’d imagined, but the experience nonetheless cements them together as the couple continues to explore their young love.

A rape victim faces a dilemma: tell the truth about her assault or stay silent and allow her attacker to be falsely convicted for murder.