It is 1939 and eighteen-year-old American Paulette Rousseau arrives in Paris to study at the Sorbonne and to pursue an independent and happier future away from her self-absorbed parents. Her prayers appear answered when handsome and charismatic Guy de Laval invites her to join a chemistry study group he tutors. But when Guy asks her to join the French Resistance in May of 1940, she questions whether she can live up to his expectations; but, if she wants to garner his respect and love, she feels she must accept. Her work takes her to the American Hospital to nurse injured Allied airmen, and later to Guy's safe house to harbor injured airmen and others while Guy is gone weeks at a time on secret missions. When she is arrested and imprisoned by the Nazis while he is on one of his mysterious absences-absences he refuses to discuss with her-she begins to question whether he is on her side. She suffers brutal treatment and near starvation until the smitten German Colonel Lorenz Dietrich releases her with a dire warning not to harbor Jews or political fugitives again. He suggests that de Laval is not what he seems and is exploiting her infatuation; rather, he, Lorenz, is the one who cares about her well-being. Is Paulette's love for and instinct to trust Guy enough protection from the dark forces that surround her?