The novel begins with the main character, Joe Bonham lying in bed and unable to move, hear or see anything. He realizes that he is badly wounded and that he will probably have to communicate for the rest of his life by writing on paper. Despite this, Joe is happy that he does not have to hear the sound of war anymore.
Joe then thinks about his past and the night when he found out that his father had died. He remembers his mother and siblings and how he was concerned about the way his father’s body was handled when it was put into the coffin.
He then remembers the stories his parents used to tell him about the period when they would court one another and how Joe’s father would call his mother to hear her play the piano.
Joe falls again into a deep sleep and when he wakes up he feels the doctors working on him. He soon realizes that the doctors have cut his arm and Joe begins to panic because that meant that he had lost the ring his girlfriend Kareen gave him before he went to war. Kareen’s father, Mike, let his daughter and Joe spend a night together and Joe remembers fondly how he held Kareen in his arms and he realizes that he will never be able to do that again.
The memory then shifts to the morning when Joe went to war and remembers how his mother and siblings came to see him off. The train station was crowded with people saying goodbye but also with parents looking for their children who agreed to go to war just to avoid going to prison.
Joe begins to fell hot and the sensation triggers a memory from the time when he worked alongside a friend of his, Howie, in the dessert in the railroad. The reason why they decided to go there is because both of their girlfriends cheated on them with the same men. Howie receives a letter from his former girlfriend asking him to return and forgive him and because the working conditions are really harsh, both men return back home.
On the train back home, Joe remembers how he punched his best friend Bill when he told them that their girlfriends were cheating on them. Joe plans on apologizing for his behavior and plans to try and make it up for him. When the reach their hometown, Howie goes to his ex-girlfriend’s house while Joe wonders around the town. He ends up near his ex-girlfriend’s house and there he sees Diane and Bill kissing in front of the house. Enraged, Joe goes home and begins to cry.
The narration then comes back into the present time and Joe thinks about the day he found out that Bill was also killed in the war. Joe considers Bill to be lucky because he got the girl and he also didn’t have to survive the war and be forced to live in pain and suffering.
The fifth chapter begins with Joe feeling like he is drowning. Joe panics tries to swim but is unable to do so because he has neither arms nor legs. When he tries to breathe and scream, he feels like he has no mouth and no nose. Thus, Joe reaches the conclusion that he has a whole from his neck to his forehead and that his eyes, ears and nose are gone.
Joe has another flashback and this time the action happens in Los Angeles during the time he worked at a bakery. It was a Friday night when they received a new worker named Jose who confessed that the reason he left his previous job was because his employer’s daughter felt in love with him but he did not love her. A few days later, Jose came with a letter from the girl that felt in love with him and he asked Joe for advice on how to reject her without hurting her.
Jose finds a day job at another place and his coworkers suggest that he does something that will enrage the manager and prompt him to fire Jose. Jose does just that and he is fired from the bakery. Joe never sees Jose again and Joe wakes up.
Chapter seven takes place after some time when Joe’s wounds have already healed. Joe thinks that the soldiers who died in the war were lucky because they didn’t have to suffer to the pain he goes through. Joe falls again in a deep sleep and dreams about the day when they discovered the body of a dead soldier on the battlefield. A rat was eating the mad and the soldiers began to beat the rat, feeling disgusted at the image of the dead soldier. Then, Joe feels like the rat is eating him and he is unable to make it go away.
In the next chapter, Joe notices how it becomes harder to tell the difference between a dream and reality as he cannot open his eyes to convince himself that he is awake. Instead, Joe decides to no longer think about the past while he is awake.
The ninth chapter is another memory during Joe’s childhood. He remembers that one day, he and one of his friends, Bill, went fishing and Joe’s father gave them his fishing rod, the only thing that had a monetary value. Joe’s family was never rich but they always had enough food and a place to sleep. Joe tells his father that they lost the rod but he doesn’t scold Joe for it. Instead, he urges Joe to enjoy their last trip together, knowing that the next year, Joe will most likely not spend as much time with his family.
In the tenth chapter, Joe thinks about war and how men are lured into going to war without knowing what they will have to face. While the men are urged to fight for freedom and honor, in the face of death they do not think about honor or their country but rather they think about their families and what they left behind.
Joe tries to keep his mind occupied by remembering certain things he learned. Then he tries to measure time by counting the seconds but he is unsuccessful to do that for a really long period of time. Joe then tries to keep track on how often the nurses come and change his bed sheets and his bowel movements. By using this method, Joe is able to figure out when it is day and night and he rediscovers time.
Between the action described in the eleventh chapter and the twelfth chapter a year passes and Joe learns the patterns of his nurses. Every Sunday, he imagines taking a stroll near Paris. Joe is unsure whether he is in America or in France thinking that maybe he was unable to be identified as an American soldier.
After a while, Joe is awarded a medal of honor but that brings him no comfort. Instead, Joe feels disgusted and begins to trash violently. The interaction between Joe and the person awarding Joe the medal makes him think that maybe he can communicate through vibrations. Joe tries to communicate with the nurses by the Morse code but the nurses don’t understand him and they either give him more tranquilizers or they assume that Joe is restless because he is sexually aroused. The nurses try to help him by providing a sexual release and this only prompts Joe to think about the interaction he had with various prostitutes in his lifetime.
Time passes and Joe is no longer able to keep track of time. He feels like he will lose his mind soon and feels trapped inside his own body. His efforts of communicating with the outside world failed and he has no way of signaling that he doesn’t want to be sedated.
Joe has another dream involving the woman searching for her so who agreed to go to war to escape prison. The woman’s son is Jesus Christ and he came from the desert. Christ sat down with Joe and other men to play cards. Christ says that every man in that group will die but the other men disagree, saying that Joe will survive. They all board the train and Joe panics, feeling that the train will just take him to his death, and jumps off it and starts searching for Christ in the desert and falls at his feet.
In chapter seventeen, a new nurse appears who tries to communicate with Joe for the first time. She slowly writes on his chest Merry Christmas and she brings a man who knows Morse code when she realizes that Joe tires to communicate through it. A new man appears and asks Joe what he wants and Joe is taken aback by his question.
Joe asks to be taken outside or that his body to be used as an exponent in a museum to show the devastating effects of war but he is told that what he asks for is against the regulations. The man comes back and Joe feels him rub something on his arm. Then he realizes that the plan on sedating him and that he will never be able to be let into the public eye again because he is the perfect example of how damaging the war is. They can’t let him outside because then many will choose not to go to war anymore and fight a pointless fight.
The novel thus ends and Joe’s future remains uncertain.
