Bert decides that winning the Rondo, an annual wheel barrow race on the cricket field, is a matter of life or death: if he wins, then Joe will be kept safe.

It is 1920; the war is over, and the village tries to come to terms with its loss. The date of the unveiling of the war memorial draws close and, as the inhabitants debate how best to honour their dead, divisions open up at the heart of the community.