Simone Signoret plays a former heroine of the French resistance who is asked to take over a provincial resistance newspaper fighting for its life against Paris-based national interests. Knowing it is a losing battle, she nevertheless enlists, having in a sense nothing to lose: retired, living alone in a big house invaded every weekend by her grown, "small-minded" children, she has lost interest in life. Director Patrice Chereau has a mainly theatrical background and flair, which lends an interesting slant to this study of press corruption, private determination and public apathy. He has stated that the film "poses the problem of...the survival of a free press.... But what fascinated me even more...was the courageous, desperate struggle of a lone woman who fights with dignity, amid confusion and uncertainty, for what she knows is a lost cause."