1944  
A Small Paris Apartment stage left with drawn curtains and a dim lightbulb.

The apartment takes up only a small part of stage left, with the rest of the stage in darkness. MANON, CLARISSE, and a man named JEAN are members of the French Resistance. They discuss how first JEAN, and then MANON will go that morning to collect two groups of Allied airmen arriving incognito at GARE DU NORD. Shot down over France they will be secretly smuggled by the Resistance to England. The mission is fraught with danger. GESTAPO  are everywhere and MANON has already been there too often. CLARISSE volunteers to go in MANON'S place, but MANON resists the idea, reminding CLARISSE that she has gotten careless and nearly compromised their last operation. CLARISSE seems resentful.