During the German advance through Belgium into France in 1940, which led to the fall of France, Captain de Reixach is shot dead by a sniper. Three of his dragoons, involved with him in different capacities, remember him and help the reader piece together the realities behind the man and his death.

One was a distant relative, one his orderly, and the third who had been a jockey in his stable before the war, had also been his wife's secret lover.