Cirrus@Austlit

On Armistic Day, four people gather in General Gresham's living room for the two minutes' silence. As the two minutes pass, each of the four remember their own experiences of World War I.

General Gresham recalls making a blunder that cost his men their lives.

His grandchildren's French governess, Marie, remembers her lover Pierre's rejection of her, when he returned from the war to find that she had had a child, after being raped by a German officer.

His charwoman, Mrs Trott, thinks of when she heard that her son had been killed in action.

His butler James remembers his years of homelessness on the Thames embankment, during which period he witness the suicide of an ex-soldier.