The novel begins in the trenches of the Firsts World War; it ends with the final battle for Berlin in 1945. It describes the misery and disillusionment of the Depression; the confusion and treachery of Republican Spain; the helplessness of the victims in the concentration camps. There is a wide range of characters, among them Nicholas Arden, gassed, shell-shocked and driven mad at Passchendaele; Gilfallan, who survives the war only to fall victim to its aftermath; his son Anthony, who joins the International Brigades and suffers betrayal by his own comrades; Felix Kaufmann, the German communist who survives Spain and the extermination camp to find all he has lived for blown to pieces in Berlin. Caught up in events of this crowded, chaotic century, and at war with himself, each attempts to impose his own small will - to find order and meaning.