In winter of 1938, Paris is crowded with refugees from the Nazis, who live in the black shadows of night, trying to evade deportation       One such is Dr       Ravic, who practices medicine illegally and stalks his old Nazi enemy Haake with murder in mind       One rainy night, Ravic meets Joan Madou, a kept woman cast adrift by her lover's sudden death       Against Ravic's better judgement, they become involved in a doomed affair; matters come to a crisis on the day war is declared