A combination of several dramatisations of short stories by the famous French writer.

 

The Franco-Prussian War comes to an end. The French are on their knees, and the people have to get used to inspections and the constant presence of foreign soldiers in their daily lives.

 

One day, a diverse mix of people - aristocrats, bourgeois... and one prostitute get on the train to Calais.

 

Some want to emigrate from the port city, some go there to visit loved ones, and others have pleasant duties of inheritance waiting for them. Their fates, sorrows, hopes, and hidden demons and skeletons found in the closets of even the most decent families unfold before our eyes. Suddenly, an outside power, which has hitherto lurked in the background as a vague threat, intervenes in those fates. The train stops. In a borderline situation, people's true characters come to light.

 

Maupassant was a relentless observer of his contemporaries. His texts are full of irony, surprising points, and grotesqueness, but they also contain a profound insight into human nature and life.