Avril is a novice in a convent of “Baptistine” sisters, a monastic order which was officially dissolved by the end of the nineteenth century but that is kept alive by Mère Marie Joseph, the sadistic superior. The rule she imposes on the nuns is particularly strict but this is all Avril has ever known since she was born, for she was an abandoned child raised by the nuns with a view to making one of them. While Avril is on retreat, locked in for a fortnight in a chapel prior to taking her vows, Soeur Bernadette, a sympathetic sister, discloses a secret to her: she has a twin brother and she encourages her to go looking for him…

A young Jewish girl looking to escape the clutches of the Third Reich after seeing her parents and sister brutally slain while attempting to make their way to England is sheltered by an old friend whose status as a member of the “third” sex soon leads the Gestapo pounding on his door as well. Betrayed by a smuggler who sat idly by as her family was casually slaughtered by the SS, terrified Sara flees into the comforting care of childhood summer-vacation chum Jean and his faithful lover Philippe. Though safe for the moment thanks to Jean’s quick-thinking plan to pass her off as a Gallic employee of his family’s laundry business, Sara watches in horror as her homosexual protector is forced into a Nazi labor camp as a tragic result of a bad decision made by Jean’s troublesome brother Jacques.