The five armistices arranged in the fall of 1918 - those of the Allies and the United States with Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire, Austria, Hungary, and Germany - determined the course of diplomatic events for many years after World War I. The armistice with Germany, the most important of the five, was really a peace treaty in miniature.

Bullitt Lowry, basing his account on a close study of newly available archives in Great Britain, France, and the United States, offers a detailed examination of the process by which what might have been only simple orders to cease fire instead became extensive diplomatic and military instructions to armies and governments.

He also assesses the work of the leading figures in the process: British prime minister David Lloyd George, French prime minister Georges Clemenceau, and American presidential envoy Edward M. House, as well as supporting cases of generals, admirals, and diplomatic advisors.