In September 1944, Sergeant Helmut Klingler escapes from American captivity in a Belgian village west of Aachen. Klingler makes his way back to his old unit, but they are soon surrounded by the Americans in a bunker. He manages to escape once again. During his flight, he witnesses SA men shooting a boy while looting. He kills them and is thereafter regarded as a murderer and deserter. He faces the threat of conviction by a court-martial, which would cost him his life. Klingler encounters Jacqueline, whom he had previously seen in a prisoner column near Mons. Like him, she is on the run. Their shared fate brings them together as they struggle to survive in the bombed-out city of Aachen.