Edward Salter is a shy, reserved lawyer whose life is transformed by the outbreak of war in 1914.

Thrown into the fiery hellscape of the Gallipoli campaign he forges intense bonds of friendship with his comrades, particularly with the charming and quietly courageous Theodore Thorne.

Through months of brutal fighting and terrible carnage, Edward and Theo are stripped bare to their souls by the appalling conditions and hourly slaughter, finding solace in the few snatched moments of normality they manage to create together.

As he watches the limits of humanity being stretched and tested all around them, Edward comes to learn more about death, love, lies, madness, cruelty, misery, friendship and redemption than he ever could have imagined.