Content Warning: This section discusses anti-gay bias, death by suicide, wartime violence, death, and war trauma.

Sidney Ellwood and Henry Gaunt are upper sixth students at Preshute boarding school in England in 1914. They sit on the roof of a school building discussing the “In Memoriam” pages of their school newspaper, The Preshutian, dedicated to those who have died in World War I. Gaunt is adamant that he is not going to fight in the war, believing that “German militarism” is not something England should be concerned with (5). Ellwood argues with him, insisting that they need to fight. They walk through the cemetery nearby, continuing to discuss the war.

Two years before, Gaunt and Ellwood got drunk together for the first time with their friends. Locked in the top of Cemetery House, their dormitory, Ellwood and Gaunt sat together in the bathtub. Gaunt, distracted by Ellwood’s touch, did his best to hide his attraction to him. Ellwood talked about Maitland, an older boy with whom he had a sexual relationship. However, because their relationship was “unspoken” and “temporary,” no one judged them for it (13).

In December 1914, four months after the start of World War I, Gaunt has his 18th birthday.