Peter, a conventional Anglican priest, becomes a padre in northern France during the First World War. He is posted to a hospital on the coast and here his spiritual beliefs are severely challenged: his eyes are opened to the normal lives and desires of ordinary soldiers as they mix with French people of all sorts. He meets and falls in love with Julie, a free-thinking and free-spirited nurse from South Africa. Their affair is conducted against the background of the morals of the time while Peter wrestles with the paradox of his love for Julie as opposed to his love for God. The book was highly controversial at the time it was written. (Summary by Simon Evers)