Drafted into the French-Algerian war of the late 1950s, Alain takes over command of an infantry platoon in the mountains of the North Africa where he learns the reality of combat and gains the experience he needs to survive and to lead his men. The shock of the casualties his platoon suffers turns him into the ruthless warrior he never thought he would become. His blood boils when the dissidents he is fighting use the civilians he is assigned to protect as instruments of war: When a rancher's family is slaughtered with knives, he adjusts his tactics to foil similar attacks on other ranches; when a little girl is sent to hand him a live grenade that almost kills them both, he befriends another little girl, five-year old Aisha, and rescues her a couple of times after attacks on her father's farm. The toll on him is high, but the beauty of the Atlas Mountains and the mesmerizing emptiness and the colors of the Sahara nurture his soul and offset some of the traumatic effects of the relentless war. Alain accumulates a heavy baggage he will have to take to civilian life, if he makes it. Yet he has no choice but to go on.