A quintet of novels, two of which were completed, leaving three unfinished drafts that miraculously came to light. The author was able to smuggle the manuscript to her daughter when she was arrested at home and transferred to a concentration camp. However, her daughter, Denise, did not dare read the manuscript, believing it to be a memoir full of pain and suffering. Fifty years later, she reread the manuscript and found it to be a magnificent novel of literary, political, and historical significance. This prompted her to publish it and it quickly won the Renaudot Literary Prize, the first time it was awarded to a writer who is no longer alive. A documented novel set in France, its first part covers the period from June 4, 1940, when German forces were preparing to invade Paris, until July 1, 1941, when some German soldiers left France to participate in the attack on the Soviet Union. The second part chronicles the events that took place in the village of Bussy, which was under German occupation. An amazingly realistic style that touches on the various details of life, full of surprises in a very exceptional time. Diaries of wealthy families emigrating in fear of war, children smuggled in military trucks, disappointed soldiers, bank managers declaring their pessimism, priests suffering from bad luck, and prostitutes wandering in despair! Secret relationships between German soldiers and French women reveal how the invading Germans dealt with French society.