Augustin Renard, a decorated war hero in the First World War, left his Picardy hometown in 1920 and went off against his family's wishes to become a priest. Now he has been appointed parish priest to St.Josse des Bois but his arrival coincides with an exodus south by many of the population, the evacuation of a local airfield by the British and the arrival of the Germans, as Marshal Petain announces an armistice.

The folk of St.Josse prepare to celebrate Bastille Day, but liberty, equality and fraternity are in short supply when Gestapo Officer Rudi Brandt descends on the town and unleashes his jackbooted minions. A battle of wills soon develops with Renard, who resists the temptation to collaborate with the invaders. He is arrested for an act of resistance, and his former lover Madeleine is forced to re-examine her attitude towards the Germans.

As the German prosecution of the Jews begins, Renard uses the annual procession of St.Josse to register the disgust at events taking place.

Renard leads the townsfolk in an open snub to the Germans, while Etienne incurs the nazis' anger with a foolhardy and premature show of resistance.