Every family has its secrets - and its lies. The Lamberts have Uncle Harry, who fought in World War I but never came home from France.

Each Lambert relative now clings to a different story: Harry died a hero's death on the battlefield. Harry married a sweet French girl. Harry drowned in the mud in Gallipoli. Harry was a coward who ran from the enemy. As his great-niece Julie struggles to sift fact from fiction, she finds how easy it is to rewrite the past.

Gradually Harry comes to life: the awkward boy in turn-of-the-century Australia, the obedient son caring for his aging mother, the 40-year-old bachelor, the reluctant soldier in France. Initially placid Harry's posted out of harm's way - but then he's called up to the front, and makes a decision that not only changes the course of his life, but changes the way he sees himself.