Tar and feathers

The narrative follows a wounded soldier whose wartime experiences—rescue and care by men of different races and faiths—force him to confront ingrained racial and religious prejudices upon returning home. Scenes move from a crowded Paris hospital and jubilant armistice celebrations to a narrow Southern town where he becomes entangled, initially unknowingly, with a secretist movement that attacks Catholics, Jews, and Black citizens. Sent north on an assignment, he renews wartime friendships, witnesses urban racial unrest, and faces the moral contradictions between comradeship in war and intolerance in peace. Interwoven with a post-war romantic subplot, the work advocates liberal-mindedness and condemns organized bigotry.