The film paints a picture of the soldiers' emotional experience in the confines of the Trench warfare; an experience running the gamut from boredom to fear, panic to restlessness. Billy MacFarlane (Paul Nicholls (actor)), 17, along with his older brother, Eddie (Tam Williams), has volunteered for service. The whole platoon, all in their late teens, depend on the war-hardened Sergeant Winter (Daniel Craig) and the scholarly Lieutenant Hart (Julian Rhind-Tutt) for their survival. When word arrives that the platoon will join the first wave of attacks, they do not yet know they will be present when the British Army loses the greatest number of soldiers in a single day in its history.