Troubled veteran Sergeant Michael Dunne serves with the 10th Battalion, the “Fighting Tenth,” of the 1st Canadian Division, carrying the weight of a war in which he has fought in every major Canadian battle and set a record for individual bravery awards in a single battle. In Alberta, his life intersects with his nurse girlfriend and a naive boy, before their paths lead to Belgium and the bloody World War I battle of Passchendaele.