THE STORY: William and Margaret Dreier have a small farm in Prussia, but their good life has been darkened by the clouds of war. William’s brother has died a hero, and now William has been called into service, leaving Margaret to care for the farm and for the others in their family who have been uprooted by the war. During William’s absence the rigors of life at home grow worse, but Margaret carries on valiantly, tending the sick and wounded, caring for her dead sister’s children. Although warned to flee at the approach of marauding Cossacks, she chooses to stay, and when William comes back at last, wounded and in rags, he finds that Margaret has becomes the unwilling mother of a Cossack’s child. Deeply shocked, William leaves again, believing that the government which has subjected him to so much will now make amends to him. But in the end he returns to Margaret, realizing his sacrifice for the fatherland was a hollow one and that his vaunted honor is of no consequence beside the deep humanity which made Margaret go on struggling to preserve life while he fought blindly to destroy it.
