The Four Feathers follows the life and adventures of a young British officer named Harry Feversham. Coming from a long line of soldiers, Harry is expected to succeed his father General Feversham in embracing a career of military life and war glories. Raised thus under the constant pressure of societal norms and conventional expectations, Harry shrinks from his inner feelings of aversion towards such a “heroic” vocation, and tends to repress them in the innermost of his soul while trying his best to meet his father’s wishes.
Years elapse and the boy becomes a man; an officer sent to all the different parts of the empire. But once he meets and falls in love with Ethne Eustace, Harry’s former distaste of his profession resurfaces to urge him into leaving it altogether and starting a life of his choice with the woman he loves. To his misfortune, he receives a telegram informing him that his brigade will be sent to the Sudan on the vey night he announces to a small dinner party of colleagues his engagement and intentions. Harry decides to burn the telegram and remain silent about its content, but two of the officers present that night, namely Trench and Willoughby, discover the truth from its sender and accuse him of cowardice by sending him a light package containing three white feathers.
Upon opening the box, Harry finds himself under the obligation of explaining the meaning of its content to Ethne who is driven to a hasty conclusion mistakenly thinking her intended to be a coward. She returns her engagement ring and breaks off a feather from her fan to add it to his lot as an emblem of cowardice. Utterly dejected and cast out from among family and friends, Harry sets sails to the war zone in Egypt and the Sudan in an attempt to restore his reputation and value in the eyes of his lover by compelling his former colleagues to take back their feathers.
During his absence, Harry’s friend Colonel Durrance, who had long being in love with Ethne, finds himself facing the moral question of whether it would be now a breach of friendship on his part to court this young lady. The two correspond by letters for a time before Durrance loses his eyesight. Following this incident, Ethne, driven by pity and compassion, accepts to be engaged to him. Meanwhile, Harry performs a set of heroic acts to regain her respect. Bravery and endurance mark his behavior during all the time he spent in the blazing desert of Egypt and the terrifying prison of Omdurman. In the end, his bravery is acknowledged, the feathers are taken back, and he is restored to his lover who finally understands the real merits of his character and feels sorry for her former prejudice. Colonel Durrance good-naturedly sets her free from their engagement when he realizes that the only man she would ever love is Harry Feversham. Thus, the two young people are offered a second chance.
