A wartime novel of unrequited love, Nazi occupation and a rather suspect béchamel sauce.

1940, Paris falls to the occupying Germans. Raoul, Head Chef of Le Metro, the top hotel of Paris, is nonchalant. After all, he need only wait for Pétain to make peace, and everything will return to normal. Then he can get on with life, and admire his demi-sous chef, Natalie, with unrequited love.

But matters soon change. When the Germans begin to cut out the Jewish staff, he hides the refugees everywhere he can in the sprawling hotel. In the end, even the wine cellar is occupied. On the night of a big German military banquet, an SD officer discovers Natalie still working in the kitchens. Raoul, in a moment of panic, kills the officer with a cast-iron frying pan. But where to dispose of the body? Forced into action, Raoul discovers that he has more strengths than his béchamel sauce.