After the French defeat in Indochina, a paratroop unit commanded by Lieut. Col. Pierre Raspeguy returns by sea to France. One of the officers, Ben Mahidi, an Arab, leaves the transport at Algiers to visit his family. Uncertain of his own future, Raspeguy visits the Countess de Clairefons, the influential widow of one of the officers killed in action. Despite his provincialism, the countess falls in love with Raspeguy and arranges for his transfer to a crucial trouble spot in Algeria; she promises to marry him if he returns as a general. Raspeguy persuades two of him former officers, Esclavier and Boisfeuras, to help him whip his untrained regiment into a fighting unit. They learn that Ben Mahidi has joined the Algerian terrorists who are carrying on a campaign of violence against the resident French, and Raspeguy and his now well-trained regiment retaliate. Meanwhile, Esclavier has been having an affair with the beautiful Aicha, who has concealed the fact that she is Ben Mahidi's sister. Aicha takes advantage of her opportunity to divert French detonators to her brother's headquarters; but when Esclavier discovers the theft he beats her into revealing Ben Mahidi's hiding place. After promising her that her brother's life will be spared, he has Aicha sent to Paris for imprisonment. Boisfeuras storms the terrorists' stronghold and kills all of the defenders, including Ben Mahidi. Raspeguy condones the action, though Esclavier accuses him of having become a beast. Some days later, as the Countess de Clairefons proudly watches Raspeguy receiving his insignia for the rank of general, Esclavier, now in mufti, watches young Algerians scrawl Indépendance on barracks walls.