A civilian in England, newspaper reporter Charles Foreman fails to rouse his complacent readers on the home front from the luring notion of a "Phoney War" before it is too late. His acquaintance John Holden owns a small factory manufacturing buckles and is quite pleased with his profits from the Phoney War. In May 1940, the Battle of France begins when the Germans invade and rapidly advance, threatening to trap much of the Allied forces in a Pocket (military) in northern France and overwhelm them.