IA,

The story will start after the worldcup in the convential way.

If you have time to spend you can get familliar with the situation after the fall of France. I assume that most of the people in the monastery are quite familliar with WW2. It may be a big advantage to know the 'rest of the story' in advance. However, it may be a drawback as well. You should not rely on what you know about what happened in 1940-1945 or even later. You should really try to dip into the scene of 1940.