George Bender's grandson lies in a coma as a result of a failed suicide attempt. When it is suggested to George that he reads to him as a means of bringing him out of his coma, George decides to relate his life story. This begins in Auckland in the early 1900s. The family is put into penury after George's father is killed in an industrial accident. To make ends meet, George, then an adolescent, is lured into gambling. However, when he is caught embezzling money from his employer to pay his gambling debts he ends up in prison. While serving his sentence, conscription is brought in to supply...