Barely 18-years-old, Willie Dunne leaves Dublin in 1914 to fight for the Allied cause, largely unaware of the growing political and religious tensions festering back home. Evoking the camaraderie and humour of Willie and his regiment, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, this powerful novel underlines the cruelty and sadness of war and the divided loyalties that many Irish soldiers felt. Running throughout is the question of how such young men came to be fighting in a war, and how they struggled with the events that raged around them.