Inspired by the French artist Alphonse de Neuville's homonymous 1873 painting, the director Georges Méliès, places the action in northern France, in the middle of a bombarded house at Bazeilles. In this dramatic staged actuality recreating a critical incident during the Battle of Sedan in the costly Franco-Prussian War, a squad of heroic French soldiers defend a ruinous home, as the enemy forces launch an artillery barrage on the city. Horrible explosions fill the air with a deafening noise, and a cascade of heavy debris falls from the wooden ceiling, as a selfless nun attends the fallen troopers' fresh wounds. Sweet victory is fading away; however, the men will fight to the last cartridge.