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A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.
The British Army, retreating ahead of victorious Rommel, leaves a lone survivor on the Egyptian border who finds refuge at a remote desert hotel. He assumes the identity of a recently deceased waiter and is helped by the hotel's owner, despite protest from the French chambermaid, who fears the imminent arrival of Rommel and the Germans.
A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.