1914: Young Vivian is hurried into a pedestrian marriage to hush a scandal - and war breaks out on her wedding day. Quick to escape the disappointment of matrimony, her husband Aubrey immediately enlists, and Vivian has no alternative but to take up the running of his estate ... Howard, a brilliant young playwright, rushes to the front in an attempt to understand his fellow man's eagerness to fight a faceless enemy - and finds he wants no part of it. In 1916, when conscription becomes law, he refuses to enlist, becoming one of the most notorious conscientious objectors of the time - and a threat to the government. Narrowly escaping a death sentence by agreeing to take on essential work on Vivian's farm, it is only then that Howard understands what is really worth fighting for ...