The unnamed speaker is a working-class enlisted man who joins the military out of economic necessity rather than patriotism. Out of work and out of options, he finds himself on a battlefield where he kills an enemy combatant. He processes his actions through a dramatic monologue, trying to reconcile his innate human empathy with the artificial rules of warfare that require him to shoot strangers.

An unnamed man who fights on the opposing side of the conflict. He shoots at the speaker but misses, resulting in his own death. The speaker imagines that this man, much like himself, is a working-class individual who sold his belongings and enlisted simply because he was out of work. Under different circumstances, he is someone the speaker would happily share a drink with at an ancient inn.