The dark forest

John Durward and John Trenchard are two Englishmen who join a company of Russian doctors, nurses, and orderlies working on the Russian side of the Eastern Front at the height of World War I. Durward, the primary narrator, is a detached and seemingly-objective observer of events; his friend Trenchard is a dreamy, clumsy, and naive man whose fiancee, Marie Ivanova, is serving alongside him as a nurse. The narrative follows the unlikely group as they are embedded in the Front, treating casualties and cholera victims while dodging shellings and enemy ambushes. At first the group seems…