Every Sunday, it’s always the same old story: Lucien, 14, can’t understand why his father, a serious and respected teacher, makes a fool of himself by dressing up as a clown and giving a show. André, Lucien’s father’s best friend, feels for the teenager and decides to reveal something from their mutual past that will explain the reason for Lucien’s father’s strange behavior. At the end of World War Two, both men, in a “fit of patriotism” committed a pathetic act of resistance and got caught at it by the Germans. These would-be heroes became German hostages and were thrown into a "dungeon", along with other sorry companions, where they waited to be shot.