During World War I Ireland was a torn nation. Many men left to fight in the British army against Germany. Others made secret deals with the Germans to further their aim of Irish independence from England. That Carroll manages to capture the complexity and irony of these divergent events through the fictional lives of one Anglo-Irish family is an accomplishment in itself. But he achieves more. In portraying Douglas Tyrell, the family's only son and an officer in the British army, he shows the anguish of what it means to try to be honorable. Tyrell is a raritya good man who is neither a saint nor a bore. Readers will despair at the nations and leaders who forgot people in quests for power and territory. They will weep with the families of those who were sacrificed.