This is the tale of Charles Marden, an apple grower and judge who sets off from his Vancouver Island home on an impulsive journey to Belgium, where his son, an Allied soldier in the First World War, has just died in battle at the very end of the war. Marden's single-minded mission: finding the exact spot where his son was killed. Upon arriving in England, Marden learns that his son left behind a pregnant girlfriend, and soon Marden's search widens to include both finding the exact spot where his son died, and locating the love his son left behind. Nearing the front lines, Marden seems to descend into the fires of hell as he navigates the mine-strewn killing fields of the trenches, still reeking with poison gas.