[1] It is part of his series of novels portraying the British Raj through the experiences of members of the Savage family.

The British commanding officer Colonel Bateman, originally liberal minded, becomes a harsh and demanding martinet under the stress of trench warfare.

Finally the two divergent characters and their respective sets of values come to a shattering head-on clash in the midst of an assault on the German trenches.

The broken Bateman subsequently commits suicide at his estate in England, leaving Krishna Ram with a sense of guilt.

At the end Krishna Ram decides that he and his men will remain on active service in France, rather than returning to Ravi, because "we gave our word to serve" and out of a form of loyalty to the dead Bateman.