A French schoolboy is full of patriotic enthusiasm at the start of the war. Pretending to be of age and against the will of his parents, he signs up.
A poor Flemish girl is caught stealing potatoes. The German occupying forces punish her severely: four months in prison or an impossibly large fine. She flees in secret and passes the "Todesdraht", an electrified security fence at the Belgian border, in order to scrape together some money in the Netherlands.
A German girl helps her older sister, who is taking care of wounded soldiers in a hospital. When the senior doctor refuses to treat a poison-gas victim, she decides to help the soldier on her own in secret and manages to save him.
An 11-year old girl gives an 18-year old boy a white feather – as a sign that he is a coward. This convinces him to volunteer for military service.
A twelve-year old American girl flees with her parents from the war in Europe. They board a Dutch freighter which is to bring them to America.
A ten-year old boy loses his parents in the war. The only thing left to him is his belief in the power of Czarist Russia.
After losing her husband in the Great War, a French mother finds she can no longer cope with the family farm.