A Colt revolver and a faded manuscript left by General Garrard to his grandson revealing the most closely guarded secrets of the First World War act as the starting point of this novel. The manuscript tells of a particular madness bred from a greater insanity; of how soldiers of opposing races and creeds chose to exist like groups of half-crazed animals in caverns far beneath the scarred earth rather than continue to slaughter one another on the battlefields above. The effects of war on people is the major theme, dealing with the ordinary and extraordinary, the brave and the fearful, and the good and the bad. The General's grandson is left with one remaining question, whose answer comes from the most unexpected source of all.