Paul (Pierre Deladonchamps), newly conscripted into the French army, and happily married to accomplished Parisian seamstress Louise (Céline Sallette), suffers shell-shock on the battlefield. Paul flees the infirmary where he’s being treated, and holes-up in his wife’s cellar where they hatch a cross-dressing scenario. He sits out the war in safety, sharing erotic intimacy with Louise, enjoying experimental sojourns after dark dressed as “Suzanne”. Integrating into postwar society becomes problematic as he sinks gradually into decadence.

With exceptional costumes, sets and cinematography, the great André Téchiné adapts the true story of a French WWl deserter who disguised himself as a woman to avoid arrest. It’s a tale of love, war, murder and tangled sexuality.