Malle was sent to a boarding school run by monks during World War II. During his time there, the monks harbored Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis. He befrended one of the Jewish students, and this film captures his friendship with and evenutal betrayal of his friend.

Malle is a great director with a realist bent. His style is particularly effective in telling a story with such emotional intensity -- the day to day mintuae of life in occupied France, of being a teenager, and of the reality of the Holocaust all aggregate into a really effective piece of cinema.