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The setting is the small town of Nouvion in Northern France, during the German occupation of France from 1940 to 1944. The cafe owner Rene Artois has been recruited into the local cell of the French Resistance, although he is ambivalent about the organization and its methods. His code-name in the organization is "Nighthawk". Rene's cafe serves as a meeting place for both the Resistance members and the German officers, leading to several complications and misunderstandings. The stories feature several ongoing recurring story arcs. The town commandant Colonel Kurt von Strohm is a greedy and highly corrupt man, more interested in profiteering than any ideological cause. He uses Rene as a reluctant ally for his schemes, threatening violence in case of failure. Kurt has to hide his personal schemes and petty crimes from his superiors, particularly the despotic Major-General Erich von Klinkerhoffen. The local Resistance leader Michelle Dubois devises elaborate plans that tend to have major risks for the participants, and she is not above coercing compliance from Rene or anyone else. She also has hostile relations with the leader of a Communist Resistance cell, since their areas of authority overlap. The Gestapo agent Herr Otto Flick tries to locate a stolen painting, to unmask Resistance members, and to expose the disloyalty of the local German officers. He is viewed as a threat by nearly everyone, but he has secret treasonous schemes of his own. He is also romantically interested in private Helga Geerhart, seemingly unaware that she is allied to his foes. Rene is carrying a long-term affair with the waitress Yvette Carte-Blanche, and he has to conceal the relationship from both his wife Edith and a number of his other love interests. Meanwhile, the valuable stolen painting "The Fallen Madonna" keeps changing hands. Regardless of their current affiliation, most of the characters are planning for their post-war retirement based on profits from art theft. They have created several forged copies of the painting as part of their various schemes.
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Episode 1
30 mins
Colonel Von Strohm and Gruber have failed to escape to Spain and come back to café René. Edith thinks up a plan for them to make general Von Klinkerhoffen believe they had been kipnapped by the Resistance: They are to hide in the old windmill in order to fake their kidnapping. Unfortunately, general Von Klinkerhoffen has planned target practices using the windmill as target. Meanwhile, Herr Flick has had plastic surgery so he can flee to Argentina when the war is over.






