Conscription is introduced for the first time in British history. Call up papers are delivered throughout the village, and soldiers requisition Big Molly.

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.

Joe's brief leave from the front has come to an end. He has tried hard to conceal his shell shock from the family, but Grace knows that something is badly wrong.