In November 1919, two soldiers--a disfigured but brilliant artist and an ex-accountant--start a memorial con. But in Roaring Twenties France, their adventures soon turn dangerous.

A few days before the Armistice in November 1918, Édouard Péricourt saves Albert Maillard's life. These two men have nothing in common but the war. Lieutenant Pradelle, by ordering a senseless assault, destroys their lives while binding them as companions in misfortune. On the ruins of the carnage of WWI, condemned to live, the two attempt to survive. Thus, as Pradelle is about to make a fortune with the war victims' corpses, Albert and Édouard mount a monumental scam with the bereaved families' commemoration and a nation's hero worship.

As the devastating World War I finally comes to its end, one last charge into the frantic and muddy battleground will inextricably bind the lives of infantry soldiers, Albert Maillard and Edouard Péricourt, after following their bloodthirsty captain Pradelle's absurd orders. Presumed dead, the two loyal companions concoct a daring plan--or, better yet, a shameless scam--to get their hands on some easy money in post-war Paris. Meanwhile, Pradelle is already cashing in on the myriads of war casualties. Always behind elaborate masks, the artistic Péricourt and his partner in crime will manage to stay effortlessly in the background, but for how much longer?—Nick Riganas