One morning, the rector of a small French village comes across a young man, lying unclothed and unconscious on a deserted beach. Intrigued, the rector has the young man carried back to his home. When he awakes the stranger calmly identifies himself as Jean, an angel who has just arrived on Earth. Naturally, the rector doesn’t believe this, but decides to humour the young man. At first, Jean’s arrival in the village causes no upset. He is a harmless soul, full of good intentions and capable of only the kindest deeds. But then the villagers grow wary of him, and this wariness turns to outright hostility when Jean unwittingly causes an accident...

During World War II a young Frenchmen sees his brother killed in Alsace by a German officer. He vows revenge on all Germans, but after the War he is conscripted into the French Army and sent to Indochina. There he meets his brother's killer under strange circumstances.