Already loose sand had drifted over the stamped-down square which momentarily had distinguished the subaltern s grave: no there was no sign, no mark, no indication whatsoever. There had been, here, eleven men. Now ten rode away

In the Mesopotamian desert during World War I, the leader of a British patrol is shot and killed, by an unseen enemy. The officer is the only one who knows their orders and has not told anyone else where they are located. From then on the sergeant has to try to lead the men through a hostile desert landscape which is full of invisible Arab snipers. One by one...