The futility and irony of the war in the trenches in WWI is shown as a unit commander in the French army must deal with the mutiny of his men and a glory-seeking general after part of his force falls back under fire in an impossible attack. War is viewed in terms of power: that class differences are more important than national differences, that working class soldiers are cannon-fodder, merely pawns in the hands of upper class generals who play at war as a game of chess for imperial ends.