The first in a planned series of military sagas which follows the fortunes of the Brand family and its involvement in the British Army. Harry Brand fails medical school in 1935 and takes himself off to Ethiopia, to serve as a medical orderly with a Red Cross unit, serving with the army of Hailie Selassie. There he gains first-hand knowledge of the horrors of war, as well as meeting a woman who is to have an effect on his life.