This is the story of a boy named Jacques, born out of wedlock in Paris, France from an American Jesuit Priest and a Canadian Sister Nurse, who fall in love aboard the SS Ile de France from New York to Paris. Jacques is placed in a French orphanage and adopted by a Jewish couple who raise him as a gifted pianist, and hide him before they are interned in a Nazi concentration camp in 1942. As a teenager, Jacques joins the French Resistance, meets Giselle, and together they escape several Nazi arrests. The Priest and Sister Nurse find each other in Paris, and their search for Jacques ends with the liberation of Paris. The Priest and Sister Nurse marry, and adopt their son Jacques, then return to New York where Jacques meets Vivian, a rich American girl, who vies for his love, while Jacques maintains his relationship with Giselle, a poor French girl. Jacques must decide to marry the rich or the poor girl. Fate steps in to solve the problem.