Felix and his father witness Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination during a parade in Sarajevo.

Elsa Dressler gives Felix a homing pigeon during the family dinner so they can stay in touch.

Sergeant Baum is called to war and offers Felix his Golden Cross of Merit, but Felix refuses it.

Felix and his mother are stranded in Lemberg when their driver abandons them as Russian troops invade.

Elsa arrives in Lemberg at night, frees Felix, and helps him and his mother escape in a wagon.

Kara convinces her mother to take her along to work as an orderly on a Red Cross ambulance train.

Kara sneaks the injured enemy soldier Sergeant Baum into her own compartment against her orders.

Captain Stout strips Kara of her Red Cross apron and bans her from nursing duties for hiding Sergeant Baum.

Kara gives Juliette the Golden Cross of Merit to help pay for her father's release from German captivity.

German soldiers capture Juliette and Monique and send them to a work camp to labor in the fields.

Major Dressler escorts Juliette on horseback across the border into Allied territory after discovering her hiding place.

Juliette rescues a collapsed Dimitri from the battlefield and nurses him back to health in her cave.

The Tsar is deposed and Russian soldiers desert for the revolution, but Dimitri stays and joins the French army.

Elsa and Felix ride to Belleray, find Dimitri, and together locate the gravely injured Major Dressler.

Kara saves Major Dressler's life on the ambulance train and announces the war is officially over.

The story opens with Felix, a young Austro-Hungarian boy, witnessing the assassination that ignites World War I before narrowly escaping Russian occupation of his hometown with Elsa's help. British girl Kara joins a Red Cross ambulance train and risks her nursing career to save an enemy soldier, Sergeant Baum, who rewards her bravery with his Golden Cross of Merit. Kara passes the medal to Juliette, a French girl trying to free her imprisoned father, who endures capture and a work camp before Major Dressler escorts her to Allied safety. Russian soldier Dimitri is rescued by Juliette on the battlefield and later freed by Major Dressler, while German girl Elsa struggles with poverty and her father's dangerous choices back home. When Major Dressler is gravely wounded after releasing French prisoners, all five young people converge to save his life. The war ends just as Kara rescues the Major, and the five protagonists celebrate together, their interconnected courage bringing the novel to a close.

The five protagonists' most pivotal moments across the war.

Felix returns home to Lemberg after the assassination feeling guilty for failing to warn the Archduke.

Elsa explains the fragile alliances between European empires to Felix using houses of playing cards.

Felix releases Elsa's homing pigeon with a note warning her that he and his mother are fleeing Lemberg.

Captain Garinov demands Felix's mother identify Lemberg's Jewish families at dinner, and Felix loudly protests.

Captain Garinov chains Felix to a pole as punishment for refusing to give him the names of Jewish families.

German ships bomb Kara's coastal town and she helps an injured woman reach safety in the street.

Kara volunteers to replace an injured orderly and helps Corporal Bryant carry wounded soldiers from the battlefield.

Sergeant Baum summons Kara and gives her his Golden Cross of Merit in thanks for saving his life.

Juliette is separated from her fleeing family when German soldiers discover their wagon and she hides in a bush.

Juliette arrives in Lille and meets Monique, who invites her to stay and warns her against bribing the Germans.

Monique creates a distraction so Juliette can escape through the fields and flee the work camp.

Igor is killed during a German attack in the trenches and Dimitri retrieves his red star to send to Igor's family.

Dimitri is ambushed and captured by German soldiers while inspecting an abandoned wagon near the Belgian border.

Elsa spots Captain Garinov in Freiburg and realizes she caused his eye injury during the escape from Lemberg.

Captain Garinov unexpectedly offers to help rescue Major Dressler and Dimitri gives him Igor's red star as a peace gesture.

The novel's secondary events fill in the gaps between the headline moments, beginning with Felix's guilt-ridden return to Lemberg and Elsa's card-game explanation of Europe's fragile alliances. Felix's act of releasing a pigeon to warn Elsa sets the eventual rescue in motion, while Captain Garinov's escalating cruelty — demanding the names of Jewish families and chaining Felix to a pole — creates the very crisis Elsa resolves. Kara's courage is first tested during the bombing of her coastal town, then again when she volunteers to carry wounded soldiers through a battlefield soaked with poison gas. Juliette's separation from her family during the chaotic evacuation of Verdun, her fraught friendship with Monique in Lille, and her escape from the work camp trace a path of resilience through occupied France. Dimitri's arc includes his friend Igor's death in the trenches and his own capture by German soldiers, while Elsa's recognition of Captain Garinov in Freiburg triggers the danger that sets the final rescue in motion. The novel closes with Captain Garinov's unexpected change of heart, sealed when Dimitri offers him Igor's red star as a symbol of peace and friendship.

The supporting scenes and confrontations that drive each character forward.

Felix's mother tells him that anger fuels war but courage gives strength to face truly difficult things.

Kara boards the ambulance train and is overwhelmed by the sight of hundreds of severely wounded soldiers.

Sister Mary explains to Kara that the Red Cross treats all wounded soldiers equally, regardless of nationality.

Kara and her mother meet Juliette selling items at the Verdun market and Kara gives back her red hat.

Juliette wakes up on Kara's ambulance train after passing orderlies spot her red hat sticking out of a bush.

Monique steals Juliette's saved money and uses it to pay for her own mother's release from German captivity.

Juliette pleads with Major Dressler to release her innocent father, leaving him torn between duty and conscience.

Juliette reunites with Kara on the ambulance train and Captain Stout reinstates Kara as a nurse-in-training.

An old man in ruined Verdun tells Juliette to keep drawing her line around every obstacle and never stop moving forward.

Juliette secretly places the Golden Cross of Merit in Dimitri's bag as he prepares to leave her cave.

Dimitri and Elsa agree they are not personally at war and Major Dressler releases Dimitri to work near Verdun.

Dimitri meets Juliette's mother, who recognizes the red hat he is wearing, and leads her family to find Juliette.

Elsa's mother falls ill with the Spanish flu as food shortages and social ostracism push the family toward starvation.

Felix arrives at Elsa's home on a motorbike, having traveled to Germany to receive a medal for wartime bravery.

Major Dressler explains to all five young people that the Golden Cross of Merit represents their shared courage.

This pool traces the personal turning points that shape each character's inner growth, beginning with Felix's mother's warning that anger fuels war while courage gives strength to face difficult things. Kara's idealism is shattered the moment she first sees hundreds of wounded soldiers, but learning the Red Cross treats all combatants equally reshapes her understanding of the conflict entirely. Juliette's journey is defined by a series of revelations — waking aboard a stranger's ambulance train, being betrayed by Monique, and pleading with Major Dressler to free her father — each one demanding greater resilience and empathy. Her encounter with an old man in ruined Verdun, who teaches her to draw her line around every obstacle, captures the novel's central metaphor, and her quiet act of slipping the medal into Dimitri's bag becomes a turning point for him as well. Dimitri's conversation with Elsa, in which they agree they are not personally at war, and his reunion of Juliette with her long-lost family show how individual empathy can cut through the hatred of nations. The pool ends with Major Dressler's speech tying together all five characters' journeys through the shared symbol of the Golden Cross of Merit.

The key revelations and emotional shifts that define each character's moral journey.