Second Lieutenant Raleigh, the new officer assigned to C Company, is welcomed by everyone except apparently Captain Stanhope who reveals later that Raleigh was at school with him and hero-worshipped him.

What neither of them knows is that if 'Stanhope went up those steps into the front line without being doped with whisky, he'd go mad with fright'.

The drama of the personal relationships between the men is played out against the larger tragedy raging around them of the First World War.