In Quedlinburg, Germany, in 1919, Anna, a German woman (Paula Beer) grieving over the death of her fiancé, Frantz Hoffmeister, in World War I, leaves flowers at his grave. She sees Adrien (Pierre Niney), a Frenchman, also leave flowers at his grave. Adrien goes to the home of Frantz's parents, Dr. Hans and Magda Hoffmeister, and tries to speak to Hans, but when Hans hears that Adrien is French, he tells Adrien that a Frenchman killed his son and, calling the French murderers, drives Adrien away. Adrien tells Hans, "You are right. I am a murderer". Anna meets Adrien and invites him to the Hoffmeister home. After she tells the Hoffmeisters that Adrien was leaving flowers at Frantz's grave, they relent. Around the dinner table, upon questioning, Adrien says that he and Frantz were students together in Paris. He describes their last day together, when they visited the Louvre. In the flashbacks, there is a strong suggestion that the two were lovers. Anna shows Adrien the places she and Frantz used to go together, and the mountaintop where he asked her to marry him. Adrien lifts Anna (and the Hoffmeisters) out of their despair. The Hoffmeisters ask Adrien, who was a first violinist in Paris before the war, to play Frantz's violin for them, as Frantz used to do. Adrien asks Anna to go to the ball with him and she accepts.