The horror and the humanity of war come too close, when a little fishing boat, the Breadwinner, rescues a pilot shot down in the Channel during a dogfight. The only trouble is, the pilot is German. As the young fisherman tends his wounds, he comes to realize that war is t exciting, and the enemy before him is just a young boy like himself - indistinguishable from the once glamorous English pilot who soon also crashes near the boat.