Summer 1939: Alexandre lives peacefully in Brittany, France, with his wife and newborn child. Suddenly, war is declared. He is enlisted on the Eastern Front line with his engineer regiment. His fascinating odyssey takes him to Flanders, Belgium, and Dunkirk where he misses the last boat for England. Taken prisoner, he walks to Holland where he is then transported to two prison camps in Pomerania. From the stalags to the village of Schivelbein, where he works in a kommando for five interminable years of confinement, Alexandre goes through many tragic, but sometimes also comical, adventures where he encounters a plethora of endearing characters – Jean, the erudite joker; Fanch, the bon vivant; Théo, the simpleton horse broker; Léon, the unfortunate teacher; Violette, the spinster organist; Émile, the tenor; André, the poet miller; Frida, the Teutonic bewitcher and her lover Janusz, the lame hunchback; Gus, the ingenious and facetious escapee; Amadeusz, the Francophile haulier; Gérard, the fox; Dmitri, the Russian soldier and Latin scholar; Marie, the madly in love; and many more …. Eventually, the Red Army liberates Alexandre, who then experiences new dramatic adventures before his return, after six years of absence, to his barely-known little boy and his wife who are impatiently waiting for him.