Shaw’s book is about young people during World War II. At its core are the fates of three young men, two of whom are Americans and the third is an Austrian. Naturally, they end up on different sides of the barricades. Each is honest, talented, decent, and serves his cause with faith and truth. In the novel’s characters—each in their own way—the psychological struggle between a sense of duty and a personal understanding of justice unfolds. One of the best war novels.