All the Light We Cannot See starts during the last year of WWII. Just before Allied plains bomb Saint-Malo they drop leaflets that instruct inhabitants of the town to evacuate. Werner and Marie-Laure the two protagonists are introduced. Neither of them has evacuated Saint-Malo. Marie-Laure is blind and alone in her great-uncle Etienne’s house. Werner is a soldier in the German army, under orders to stay at a Saint-Malo hotel called “the Hotel of Bees,” where the Germans have set up their headquarters.
Allied bombers approach Saint-Malo, Marie-Laure and Werner each prepare for the bombing in their own way. Marie-Laure, instead of taking shelter, manipulates a tiny wooden model of Saint-Malo that her father made for her, which reveals a diamond hidden inside it. Meanwhile, Werner takes shelter with two other soldiers in the hotel’s cellar.
Allied bombers approach Saint-Malo, Marie-Laure and Werner each prepare for the bombing in their own way. Marie-Laure, instead of taking shelter, manipulates a tiny wooden model of Saint-Malo that her father made for her, which reveals a diamond hidden inside it. Meanwhile, Werner takes shelter with two other soldiers in the hotel’s cellar.