In Vlaamse Velden: Season 1

Ghent (Flanders), summer of 1914. Gynecologist Philippe Boesman refuses to believe Germany will invade, even after the Belgian army starts mobilizing men, including his oldest son Vincent, whose bright junior brother Guillaume refuses wisely to volunteer and makes a fast career in a factory. German friends are abused and chased even before the 'Huns' invade, fast and unstoppable.

The Belgian troops can't put up real resistance to the German advance, barely retreat orderly with heavy losses. Guillaume's attempt to be exempt from military service due to his value for the war production fails, so he attempts to flee when conscripted, but is caught and sent to a penal camp for deserters in France. The news Antwerp is about to fall causes a rift in the Flemish movement, which doctor Philippe leaves in a Belgian patriotic mood. Still he sends his family's females to an aunt's Dutch home. Daughter Marie stubbornly imposes her nursing services and gets attached to a rape victim, which she smuggles into the Dutch refuge, which makes both unwelcome.

Gynecologist Boesman tries to win the favor of both German officers quartered in his home, but junior Gerolf is naturally haughty and senior Hans-Peter sanctimoniously plays him to be treated to good wine and meals, while banishing the family to the kitchen. Resourceful Gauillaume finds a way to crawl in and out of the deserters prison camp to set up a contraband food trade with a local family. Vincent's unit experiences the horrors of disorderly retreat and attempts to stand their ground which prove futile, until the Yser floodgates are opened. Virginie and Marie soon leave grandma's safe Dutch home to return to Ghent, which proves perilous and a foretaste of penury in the occupied homeland.

Guillaume is finally released from the deserters camp, only to join the muddy front squalor and bloodshed, like Vincent. Christmas brings a short seasonal relieve. In Ghent, Guillaume's ambition to become gynecology professor under German rule are frustrated because some professors refuse the oath of loyalty to the occupying German empire demanded before Ghent university is reopened. Handsome Gerold starts to seduce vain naively romantic Marie.

The German advance, occupying nearly all Belgium, has been halted by the Yser flooding. The field troops are now bogged down in a hell of muddy trenches, which turns even worse when toxic gas is introduced, against which no proper masks are available yet. Vincent still dutifully keeps dragging his loyal men to dangerous posts and missions. He's delighted to see his rascal kid brother Guillaume, finally released from deserter camp and enrolled, arrive. The slick dealer quickly scores a dream job as driver for a liaison officer, who mainly appreciates his expertise in Flemish night life for the English officers club. The young German officer enjoys an affair with Marie, abusing his contacts to protect her, while she joins the resistance. Smuggling documents to grandmother's Dutch home ends in due, painful punishment and disgrace.

The senselessly bloody hell at the Yser gets so obviously absurd that even eager beaver corporal Vincent prefers the stockade to keeping quiet against the blatantly haughty francophone officer and turns down an NCO course. Guillaume has become former business buddy Woods' virtual officers club deputy for 'entertainment'. The Germans are closing in on th Ghent resistance, so Marie's only hope is her German lover, even after he uses her to round up accomplices. Assuming Germany's Axis is winning the war, Philippe draws a manifesto that helps end the stalemate about reopening the university and accepts a post as anatomy professor.

The situation on the front gets even worse, disheartening even Vincent, who accepts a padre's suggestion to start education the troops. Guillaume is delighted to accompany British officer Woods to his English home, where he braves the parents to start a relationship with John's bachelor sister Sarah. Adjutant Hans-Peter Lehman isn't compromised when the counterfeit papers he gave Marie are discovered at a routine check. She's arrested but escapes with sheer luck, contacts the resistance and gets some of them killed while she and a peasant cross the Dutch border. To to her injured leg, she abandons her plans there and agrees to join him to England, where he volunteers for the army and she gets accepted for the nurse training program. Philippe proudly assumes an anatomy chair, but is abused as traitor by local rabble and neglects his home practice. His haughty wife Virginie is found out covering for Marie and reduced to de facto maid by captain Gerolf Hoffman.

The men hit rock bottom. Jealously fighting for a girl who joined the bordello out of infatuation for him, Guillaume looses his prospect to marry Sarah after the war and instantly his driver job, so he's posted on the front, where he witnesses a rare survivor being shot for 'desertion'. Vincent is jailed after a drunk brawl, but accepts a last shot at officer training in France when Marie, whose nursing dream proves rather nightmarish in the field, seduces his commander. Hans-Peter wisely refuses to forge a 'replica' for Philippe's 'lost' gynecology diploma, the non-existence of which is discovered, so he's forced to resign his anatomy chair, but his neglected practice is no longer profitable.