Part 1 Chapter 1 Summary

Billy Prior waits for the rest of his life to start. He walks along a seawall in Bradford, watching all of the women and children play in the sand and surf. Munitions workers, with their yellow skin, pass by him on the boardwalk. Billy Prior kills time, waiting for his next medical exam to see if he can be sent back to France to fight for England's war effort. Although he's offered the opportunity, he doesn't want to stay in England or be a munitions worker. He wants to fight, for lack of anything better to do.

As Billy arrives to wait for his medical exam, he runs into a man named Owen with whom he spent some time in the mental ward of a war hospital called Craiglockhart. When finally examined by Dr. Mather, Billy plays down his asthma, so...