Director Robert Altman replaces the action of combat with tension and suspense, as a Frenchman with vital information on the Germans' plans is severely injured behind enemy lines and no doctor can be found to save his life. Both Vic and Rick are struggling with coming up with a plan to save him, which becomes extremely difficult when an army doctor they're escorting to the convent where he's resting dies of a heart attack.
An almost spooky strangeness is added to the show with the convent consisting of nuns whose faces are hidden and have taken a vow of silence, with only the mother superior able to communicate. The life and death nature of the war unfolds without the usual pitched battles, but with moral ambiguity taking center stage.
Key plot twist has only a German doctor, a decorated soldier, found to see to the patient, and Altman tightens the screws, as questions of loyalty and duty clash. The ultimate operation on the man to remove shrapnel is depicted in almost a ritualistic fashion -silence, with candles everywhere and the nuns praying in the background, a masterful piece of suspense tightly edited.