A young mother lovingly recalls her golden-haired son, opening with an idyllic scene of butterflies alighting on his head and tracing the effortless intimacy of their domestic life. Rising patriotic fervor propels the son to enlist as an ordinary soldier, and the narrative follows his training, brief home leaves, and eventual deployment while the mother alternates between pride and foreboding. Lyrical family moments are juxtaposed with quoted press passages about the arrival of the Unknown Soldier, and the story meditates on sacrifice, the symbolism of immortality, and the emotional costs of war.