In the chaos of newly liberated Paris, a black female jazz singer and deserters from 4 different armies band together and launch a spectacular WW2 crime wave.

SYNOPSIS:

WW2 is coming to an end and thousands of deserters are on the loose in France. Teenage GI Robbie is thrown out of his foxhole by two non-commissioned looters who want to protect stolen crates of wine. A direct hit destroys the wine and kills the looters. Robbie panics and hides in the back of a supply truck. The vehicle is later hijacked by two deserters. Bunny, a former boxer and petty criminal, only joined the British army to stay out of prison. His American partner Lee is a cold-blooded killer and rapist. While selling their contraband they are betrayed and nearly murdered by their French partner.

Sebastian, a Canadian soldier suffering from shell shock, is supposed to be guarding Lothar a German prisoner. Lothar’s desperately wants to go to a POW camp and survive the war. He’s mortified when Sebastian urges him to escape. Learning that French women who slept with Germans are being targeted by local vigilantes Lothar rescues his girlfriend, with unexpected help from Sebastian. While fleeing the Resistance they meet the other three deserters and reluctantly agree to temporarily join forces for mutual protection, calling themselves the Free Company.

They travel to recently liberated Paris, which is swarming with other deserters and Allied soldiers looking for R&R. Pearl, a black American jazz singer who is now a French citizen, takes them in. Her Jewish husband disappeared after being arrested by the Gestapo and she wants revenge. Driven by desperation, greed, and German pep pills the deserters overcome their differences, and Lee’s racial animosity towards Pearl, to rob the local mobsters who nearly killed Lee and Bunny. Lothar’s military planning defeats the French gangsters and wins a huge payday.

Pearl convinces the deserters to target the notorious collaborator who betrayed her husband and profited from the Nazi occupation. The collaborator, who is gay and attempting to keep his German lover safe, doesn’t know one of his bodyguards has betrayed him. The bodyguard is part of a Communist conspiracy to rob and kill the collaborator. The Free Company arrives first and after considerable confusion and violence escapes with a huge haul. Pearl grabs a Picasso painting for herself. When two gangs try to rob the same bank at the same time the Free Company prevails, but the members feel their luck is running out. They agree to split up and go their own. Lee breaks into Pearl’s apartment and discovers the Communists got there first and she’s made a deal.

The Communists execute Lee and steal his loot. Bunny flees Paris in a rowboat and befriends a hangman on the journey. Robbie flees on a motorcycle and drives into disaster. Determined to get into a POW camp Lothar, with help from Sebastian and a bribed Resistance leader, takes a huge risk. After starving for four years because the Nazis wouldn’t allow her to perform ‘decadent’ music Pearl, having secured her vengeance but lost her share of the crime proceeds, makes a triumphant return to the stage.