Set in 1940 at the beginning of France’s occupation by the Germans, the recently widowed Odile (Béart) is a young, beautiful mother fleeing Paris with her two children, 13-year-old Philippe (Leprince-Ringuet) and 7-year-old Cathy (Meyer) in tow. When German planes bomb the road filled with refugees, Odile’s car is destroyed, and she flees into the woods with her children. They encounter Yvan (Ulliel), a 17 year-old illiterate delinquent whose survival skills and charm soon prove indispensable. After spending a night in the open, the four fugitives stumble upon an abandoned house and Yvan breaks in. Empty of its inhabitants, the house becomes a desert island paradise and the setting for a makeshift family. Odile, at once suspicious of and attracted to the mysterious stranger, soon finds herself at the center of a fascinating set of personal and sexual dynamics.