In the aftermath of World War II, a Hungarian teenager, captured by Soviet troops, forms an unlikely bond with a Russian soldier in a remote prison camp.
Dismissed from the railroads in 1863 for his union activities, Etienne Lantier found a job at the Voreux coal mine. But work was hard, wages were low and safety left much to be desired. Lantier tried to organize the miners into a union. When mine manager Hennebeau refused to negotiate, the workers launched a general strike, which ended with the intervention of the troops.
During a mining accident, the police arrest the sole survivor on suspicion of murder, whose pickaxe is stained with the blood of one of the victims. The investigation reveals that the identity card found on the victim belongs to another person, that the collapse was deliberate and that the miner believed to be the victim has escaped.
