The play is set in the vicious trench warfare of World War One. The action begins on the evening of Monday 18 March 1918 and continues over three days.
Later that evening the officers are having a post-raid celebratory dinner. Stanhope seems in a particularly bad mood. He has a drunken argument with Hibbert and gets angry with Raleigh for not attending the dinner.
Raleigh explains that he is grieving for Osborne.
Stanhope grieves
Stanhope shows his devastation at Osborne鈥檚 death. In an emotional outburst he describes his friend as "the one man I could talk to as man to man 鈥 who understood everything鈥.
We realise that his drinking and jovial dinner chat has all been to cover up his grief.