This is war as experienced in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java in 1942, but, above all, war as experienced in the company of the prisoners and oppressors. What follows is the story of two British officers whose spirit the Japanese try to break. Yet out of all the violence and misery strange bonds are forged between prisoners - and their gaolers. In a battle for survival that becomes a battle of contrasting wills and philosophies as the intensity of the men's relationships develop.