It is Flanders in June 1917 a British officer and celebrated poet, is shot dead, killed not by German fire, but while recuperating from shell shock well behind the lines A young English soldier is arrested and, although he protests his innocence, charged with his murder Douglas Kingsley is a conscientious objector, previously a detective with the London police, now imprisoned for his beliefs He is released and sent to France in order to secure a conviction Forced to conduct his investigations amidst the hell of The Third Battle of Ypres, Kingsley soon discovers that both the evidence and the witnesses he needs are quite literally disappearing into the mud that surrounds him