In the summer of 1914 love finds Jeanne DeReadt in the form of a young and handsome Belgium lieutenant. The young lovers go on a clandestine picnic with their friends, and the idyllic day and evening will be forever burned into Jeanne's memory. By date's end, WWI has begun, Belgium is invaded and they are at gunpoint before a German officer.<br><br><br> The mechanizations of a small country desperately trying to remain neutral at the onslaught of the first Great World War have far reaching impacts on its citizens. From Jeanne's rash cousin Emiel to her first love Michael, all will be measured with unerring precision by the scales of war. Horrific crimes against humanity will be unearthed in ones past as he participated in Belgium's rubber and ivory trade. This same contempt of fellow human-beings is revisited on a country as a whole.<br><br><br> In the midst of this, Jeanne is left with struggling to save her father, feed her family by smuggling food, and accept the loss of her own youth and innocence. For this one season, no one escapes the Eagle and Its Talons as its shadow sweeps ominously over all of Europe.