Christmas Eve finds a German mother and her son seeking refuge in a cabin on the war front. When she is invaded by three American soldiers and then three German soldiers, she struggles to convince the enemy soldiers to put aside their differences for one evening and share a Christmas dinner. The performances, especially those of Linda Hamilton, as the frightened, yet determined, Frau Vincken, and the young men who play the GI's and Wehrmacht infantrymen, convincingly convey the snow-blanched weariness and wariness that surely contributed to the real participants' attempt to lay aside their arms as a sign that their world may have tired of its madness.