Prisoners await execution by firing squad when they are captured during the Spanish Civil War in this drama taken from the novella by Jean-Paul Sarte. Pablo is a loyalist jailed after he searches for his brother. An Irish mercenary and a Belgian physician are his cellmates. Flashbacks recall their lives before the war as they spend their last moments on Earth waiting for their date with death.

After a chaotic night of rioting in a marginal suburb of Paris, three young friends, Vinz, Hubert and Saïd, wander around unoccupied waiting for news about the state of health of a mutual friend who has been seriously injured when confronting the police.