 A boy of 8 or 9, who lives with his widowed mother in the countryside near the beaches of Normandy, runs into the woods to play wearing his father s boots. When his toy plane flies into a pond, he wades in to retrieve it only to find a spent rifle shell and a small metal box containing dogtags and a few old photographs. One photo is of an American soldier squatting on the edge of this very pond. The boy looks to that spot and the soldier is there; other G.I.s appear, then a firefight ensues with a platoon of German infantry. The soldier pulls the lad to safety, is wounded, and hands the lad his dogtags. Is this the father in whose boots the boy has gone to play?