In the last phase of their jungle training in Burma a group of Englishmen headed by Craig, had lost -- almost a year before -- a young man of superior military qualifications in an unnecessary incident. Now the younger brother of that casualty, Bob Ramsay, is under the command of Craig and is contemptuous of Craig's guilt feelings toward his brother's death. When Bob is killed after patterning himself into the image of the ""warrior"", the author demonstrates his mastery over the metaphysics of courage and cowardice. This is perhaps the most assured and the most successful of Paul Scott's novels.