Smuggler's Ball is the English-language title for this French-Belgian seriocomedy. The action takes place along the borders separating Belgium, Holland and France. It is here that the worldly Pierre (J. P. Kieran) carries on a profitable smuggling operation, all the while romancing Siska (Christian Lenier), the daughter of a local customs official. Various subplots and secondary characters weave in and out as the plotline guides the viewer through the WW II years. Towards the end, the story shifts gears when the Benelux Frontier Agreement eliminates all government regulations. The film's screenplay is by Charles Spaak, himself the descendant of a Belgian political family, and thus well-versed in bureaucracy and red tape.

The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's Atlantic Wall, notes to his officers that when the Allied invasion comes they must be stopped on the beach. "For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day"

1946年在战后的废墟中，两个男人在修理破旧汽车，并展开对人性的讨论。本片即以这辆废车的角度，通过在车中留下的一件件小物件，讲历任往昔车主的故事。 他们中，有匆忙出逃的政客，有不得志的音乐家，有分居又复合的老夫妇，有儿子判罪的夫人，有赴任的上尉…战争年代，人们的命运只能摇曳，但是依然有爱情、亲情等等在动荡中闪耀着美好的人性光芒。影片并没有气势恢弘的场面，却用普通人的生活串联起一段完整的历史。