The black song of the whales

1920, Île de Ré. Léon has been living alone with his mother since his father left for war and never returned. Fearing that he too will be drafted, his mother does not send him to school, and mother and son live cut off from the world. Léon fishes, collects shells, steals salt from the marshes, and invents adventures for himself, sitting on the back of a whale carcass.
One morning, after a storm, Léon finds a man lying unconscious on the beach. Tierno—that is his name—gradually regains his memory and recounts how he was torn from his family in Senegal to go to war as a rifleman, how he learned to read French, and how his ship capsized as he was returning to his country. Léon and Tierno form a genuine friendship, with Tierno recounting his childhood in Senegal and Léon teaching him how to fish for razor clams.
When the rifleman is summoned to testify about the shipwreck, the locals waver between racism and kindness…
Once the investigation is over, Tierno will finally be able to return to Africa, from where he promises to write to Léon.