On the last day of the First World War a young soldier (Joe) is involved in an explosion. He wakes up in hospital a shell of the man he used to be. Now without his arms and legs, the use of his eyes, ears or mouth yet remaining conscious and still able to reason he struggles to decipher between reality and nightmares. Trapped inside his own mind when he finally learns how to communicate he askes that he be used as a shocking demonstration of the horrors of war or be left to die.