In the trenches of France, a band of German infantrymen lives out its days during the First World War. A village behind the front line offers them brief moments of diversion and respite, yet terror dominates their existence as the fighting with the French army surges back and forth. One soldier, Karl, gets home leave, only to find his family degraded by the poverty the war has brought. He makes it back to the front just in time to face a massive assault by French tanks.