André Demester secretly and painfully loves Barbe, his childhood friend, accepting from her the little that she gives him. He leaves home to be a soldier in a war in a far off land. Barbarity, camaraderie and fear turn him into a warrior. As the seasons go by, Barbe, alone and wasting away, waits...
Along the Côte d'Opale, near a hamlet, with its dunes and marshes, lives a mysterious wanderer from nowhere who struggles along, poaches, prays and builds fires...
