leaves to fight in World War I with plans to fly an airplane and come back a hero. After he is reported as missing in action, Klara is devastated and attempts to shut out her memory of him and her emotions, and the narrative returns to her life as the spinster. The Road After leaving home, Tilman spends several years as a hobo on the roads and rails. He eventually meets up with a tramp named Refuto, who had left home because he felt guilty for indirectly killing his brother. Later, Refuto decides to try returning home, fearful that his family will not forgive his wrongs. Refuto brings Tilman with him to the Italian district of Hamilton; Tilman befriends Refuto's son Giorgio and lives with the family for a time, doing the odd job in this steel town. But when war comes, Tilman serves in the trenches of France. The Monument Aged in his 40s, Tilman returns to Shoneval, and Klara is reunited with the brother who had been assumed dead years ago. Here it is learned that Tilman is a veteran of the Great War, and lost his leg in the battle of Vimy Ridge and walks with a prosthetic. Upon learning of the construction of the Vimy memorial, the elaborate monument dedicated to the lost soldiers without a known grave, Klara becomes determined to travel to France with Tilman to work on it. After overcoming her brother's reluctance they travel to France and start work on the monument, Klara disguised as a man. After some weeks, and without permission, Klara sculpts Eamon's face on a key statue on the memorial, the torchbearer, symbolizing all of the young men who lost their lives. Despite his initial anger, the designer, Walter Allward, sees amazing carving skills within Klara, and how the portrait of the young man's face increases the much desired allegory for those youthful men who were lost in the war. Ultimately deciding it enhances the monument, Allward keeps the alteration. While working alongside Tilman's friend Giorgio, Klara falls in love with him, and for the first time since Eamon's death she opens up her emotions. Tilman also opens himself up to physical intimacy for the first time, with a male war-wounded French chef. Both Tilman and the chef, Recouvrir, find love and healing in each other's damaged bodies. The novel ends with the imposing memorial completed, Allward all