The story occurs from September 1637 to March 1638, and centres on two men – a mercenary soldier and an intellectual – who are fleeing the destruction and starvation wrought by religious war.

[1] James Clavell adapted and directed the novel as The Last Valley (1970), with Michael Caine and Omar Sharif, respectively the mercenary captain and the philosopher.

It is the Captain's intention to pillage the Valley, burn the village to the ground, and return the plunder to the Protestant army of Prince Bernard of Saxe-Weimar for whom they are fighting.

Accompanied by a soldier named Korski, his main rival within the group, the Captain draws Vogel aside from the other mercenaries who have begun to break into the buildings.

He then proceeds to inform the company of the change in plans and arranges the elimination of several other troopers who might object (allies of Korski and those with women back at the army's encampment).

Through a series of intellectual conversations and arguments the two slowly begin to form a bond of mutual respect and, by the end of the story, friendship.

Vogel is quartered on Martin Hoffman, another leading peasant in the village whose young, strong-willed daughter, Inge, develops an attraction for him that he finds painful to resist.

An immediate point of contention erupts when both Gruber and the Captain agree that the village's beloved shrine should be moved to prevent other roving patrols from finding the Valley.

Even some of the Catholics among the mercenaries express misgivings—in particular, Pirelli, one of the Captain’s chief lieutenants, who tells Gruber at one point: "Other villages have mountains.

Vogel then must act quickly to prevent a massacre between a large group of peasants en route to the shrine and the soldiers who have arrived to block their path.

Gruber tells Vogel that he must now flee to escape the wrath of the peasants, a suggestion that the Captain later regretfully backs although he knows the truth of the situation.

[5] However, back en route to the Valley, the pair encounter a patrol of Croats, the irregular cavalry of the Imperialist forces.

In the meantime, Vogel comes across Andreas, still in exile after his confrontation with Graf, and likewise urges him to act on behalf of the Valley, spy out the Croats, and report back.

The Captain also agrees to Vogel's suggestion of training some of the villagers as a type of militia to assist with protecting the Valley after the defection of Hansen, another of Korski's partisans, along with two other mercenaries.

Instead, Andreas attempts to kill Vogel, jealous of Inge's infatuation with him and the general situation of the mercenaries presence in the Valley.

The reverie is interrupted by a travelling merchant who warns that the warring parties, Prince Bernard and Imperialist general Johann von Werth, are drawing closer to their location.

Taking with him the remains of his original force as well as the bulk of the peasant militia, the Captain and company head off to the army encampment at Rheinfelden.

He arranges the death of the two remaining soldiers, has Vogel confined, and, expecting the Captain’s imminent return after the Protestant victory at Rheinfelden, sets up an ambush for him.

The Captain reveals that in the confusion of the battle, his company had joined the wrong side in the conflict and had been wiped out, leaving him as the sole survivor.

Based on the Captain's dispositions before the battle with the Croats (combined with those known already to have died), the company numbered 18 men by that time and had entered the Valley with no less than 22.

The Valley and its village are technically loyal to the Catholic cause in the war and located two days ride from Rheinfelden.

Throughout the novel, characters at all socioeconomic levels can be found discussing greater events in Germany as they understand them as well as relating their own experiences.

He attended Cambridge University for a year but left at the outbreak of Second World War to join the Friends' Ambulance Unit.

[9][10] Pick was the author of the novels, Out of the Pit, The Lonely Aren't Alone, Under the Crust, and A Land Fit for Eros, the last co-authored with John Atkins.