By cutting through the fields to take her father lunch, Patricia encounters Jacques. She is eighteen years old, he is twenty-six. She is pretty, with the fine manners of a young lady; he is fighter pilot and handsome. A little bit of moonlight will do the rest during their second meeting. There will not be a third: Jacques is sent to the front.
The second encounter leads to Patricia's pregnancy. Jacques's rich parents claim its blackmail and Patricia and her well-digger father are the only ones to have the joy of welcoming the child into this world. A joy that the Mazels soon envy them and try to share, for Jacques is declared missing.
