Rigby's grandfather, Gilbert, is roaming the Yorkshire countryside in distress. Finding an old map in his grandfather's home, peculiarly annotated and marked by his grandfather, Rigby begins to realize that it duplicates the days following the Normandy landings in 1944. He is drawn down an elusive trail into the past, hunting old memories and new truths at the heart of his grandfather's youth in the raw days of the war. It shakes the very foundations of Rigby's own young life, and he learns of the feelings of young men caught in the terrors and misery of the battlefield, and the impact of their lives on generations to come.