Set on the Eastern front of WWI, it opens with preparations for a deserter‘s hanging. A Romanian officer, Apostol Bologa, is secure in his duty, but the reaction of another plants a seed of doubt. He begins questioning and then his company is sent to the Romanian front where misgivings grow into debilitations and, finally, the inevitable end. The description and plot are engaging, but the plodding backstory and the philosophical dithering 🙄.