A young woman moves to France after World War II. On a late November night, one of her friends, a soldier named Martson, stumbles onto her doorstep. She thinks about how she last saw Martson with his good friend, Esme, before they left for the war. She always thought that Esme and Martson were very different from each other--Martson was very curious and practical while Esme was an erratic dreamer. However, they were always with each other. At the young woman's doorstep, Martson begins to sob and tells her that he had to tell someone and he's been searching for her for awhile. Martson talks about how he loved Esme and that he would've given his life for him. The young woman thinks about how Martson and Esme's companionship was very strong and assured Martson that she would listen to his story. Martson claims that he is not as mad as the world believes him to be but rather he has been traumatized by the war. Martson explains that their Indian friend, Brander, died in a fight against the Germans on the British front. In his final words, Brander requested to see Esme and Esme left as soon as he heard. However, as Esme and Martson began their trek towards the enemy side of the battlefield, Martson lost sight of Esme while they were flying there. He then noticed Esme fighting a German plane. Esme rammed into the German plane and they fell out of the sky together. Martson, believing his close friend had perished, returned to the British side and he and the other soldiers paid tribute to Esme. Martson continues to talk about the friendship he had with Esme and that they went to school together. Martson praises Esme for his skill as a pilot, despite his crash. Martson talks about how, a month later, a bunch of soldiers crowded together to watch a plane doing corkscrews in the sky. Martson begged the anti-aircraft ships to not shoot it down because he believed it to be Esme. The soldiers were able to urge the pilot to land and the pilot inside was Esme. However Esme seemed absent of emotion and very tired. The other soldiers left Esme alone with Martson. Martson explains that he was shocked that Esme was unharmed by the crash. For several weeks, Martson and the other soldiers stay to watch Esme. Some of the soldiers believe that the Germans were after Esme and others believed him to be a traitor or spy. Yet, Martson believed that Esme was too weak and tired. Esme explained that he was able to escape by distracting guards and breaking a camera to get away in time. Martson remembers when Esme asked him if Martson was relieved to see that he had survived and that this was the reality of war. Martson feels guilty because at that time, he believed Esme to be crazy. He admits that he did not take Esme's mental and physical condition into account. From that time on, Martson made it his goal to convince the other soldiers that Esme was a good person and would never betray them However, after awhile, Esme became more absent from his mental state and Martson turned on him. Martson believed that Esme had murdered the German pilot--who was only doing his job and wasn't attacking them first. Though Martson ignored Esme, Esme continuously called for him to visit. Martson refused. 10 minutes later, Martson returned to the tent, only to find Esme gone. Esme left a letter explaining that he was wrong for fighting dirty and attacking without being attacked first. He explains that Martson and the other soldiers are different because they are clean fighters, but that he (Esme) was not. Therefore, Esme was going to go back to the German lines and sacrifice himself for France Martson begins to sob to the young woman and feels immense guilt for not staying with Esme and turning on him. Martson grips onto his glass cup so hard that it breaks and cuts him. Martson begins to bleed on the white tablecloth.