Cyril, Leo McKern, and Waldo, John Randolph, are two veterans who have returned to France in search of the same woman, Angelique, Jeanne Moreau. Cyril travels with Amos, Alec Guinness, a childlike figure who clings to an empty jam jar as if it were a treasured toy. Waldo arrives with his daughter Beverly, Geraldine Chaplin, and her husband Ralph, Edward Herrmann.
The two groups collide, and after some initial friction they find common ground in old sorrows, gradually forming a fragile camaraderie as they move through the countryside and old memories. Along the way they meet the recently widowed Lisa, Lauren Bacall, who has come to Normandy in search of her brother’s grave, bringing a new perspective to their shared journey.
As the trip unfolds, revelations deepen the emotional stakes: Amos saved Cyril’s life during the Battle of Normandy in 1944, but the head wound left him permanently brain-damaged, and Cyril has cared for him ever since. Cyril also reveals that Amos does not have long to live, making this Normandy voyage feel like a last chance to honor their close friend Briggs, who was killed in action. Waldo is there for a similar purpose, to visit the grave of another comrade who fell on D-Day.
The voyage gradually puts Beverly’s concerns into perspective, and Lisa guides them to her brother’s grave, where she reveals he was a German soldier, a revelation that freezes the group in a moment of stunned reflection. After this, Angelique embraces Lisa, and Amos offers a soldier’s salute before marching on. The film’s final image lingers on Briggs’s grave on Omaha Beach, with Amos’s jam jar left on the stone and the group filling it with wildflowers, a quiet tribute born of shared loss and memory.
