A sympathetic story of a moral dilemma set at the turn of the 19th century. A Frenchman joins the Chouannerie – a Royalist uprising in opposition to the French Revolution, led by a group of guerrilla warriors known as the Chouans – to provide for his wife and two children. While on duty he receives word that his youngest son is gravely ill, and so deserts his post to return home. He is condemned to death as a deserter, but his wife uses her own body as a shield against the executioner’s bullet.