Set during and after the First World War, A Very Long Engagement is the tale of a young woman's search for her fiance who she believes might still be alive despite having officially been reported as "killed in the line of duty". Unable to walk since childhood, fearless Mathilde Donnay is undeterred in her quest as she scours the country for information about five wounded French soldiers who were brutally abandoned by their own troops.

A Very Long Engagement is a mystery, a love story, and an extraordinary portrait of life in France before and after the War.