The STO ('Compulsory Work Service') was responsible for sending hundreds of thousands of young men from France to work in the factories of the German war economy. At liberation in 1944, many of them were still in Germany or had joined the refugees fleeing from East to West to escape the Red Army. When they finally returned home, their years spent in Germany became a taboo subject, a shameful reminder of forced or voluntary collaboration with the German occupier.
The film seeks to establish the chronological and individual truths about this often wilfully ignored episode of the war in France. Personal recollections of these men and their families contribute to our understanding of the war in France where the STO became a powerful symbol of the Vichy government's developing collaboration with the Nazis.