Frank Harrington is an idealistic volunteer in the American Ambulance Field Service, a group of young Americans ferrying wounded soldiers from the front lines of the Western Front to temporary, teeming field hospitals. As Frank gradually comes to grips with the appalling realities of trench warfare and dodges the German shells, he also finds himself falling in love with Kit Stanley.Kit is one of many volunteer English nurses tending to the flood of British soldiers suffering from ghastly wounds and poison gas. But she must also grapple with the burden of her allegiance to Captain Nigel Owen, an infantry commander caught in the thick of the fighting.By turns gripping and romantic, horrifying and deeply moving, John Kerr's powerful novel paints a vivid picture of life just behind the front lines and of the ordinary, unsung men and women whose sacrifice and heroism helped save the lives of thousands of soldiers.