It is 1917 and 90 feet below the German trenches on the Messines Ridge two young sappers are guarding 60,000 pounds of ammonal destined to blow the Hun sky high In foul darkness Clem and Will talk about their life in their Somerset village and especially about Alice, the auburn-haired maid at the Hall A giant explosion wrecks their tunnel leaving the two men on opposite sides of the blockage - a story that spares none of the obscene horrors of war