The height of the first world war. Germany is already fighting against France, Russia, England and America, Paul Boymer, on behalf of whom the narrative is being conducted, represents his fellow soldiers. Here gathered schoolchildren, peasants, fishermen, artisans of different ages.

The company has lost almost half of its composition and, nine kilometers from the front line, is resting after meeting with English guns - “meat grinders”.

Due to losses during the shelling, they get double servings of food and smoke. Soldiers slept, eat their fill, smoke and play cards. Muller, Kropp and Paul go to their wounded classmate. The four of them fell into the same company, persuaded by the "sincere voice" of their class teacher Kantorek. Joseph Boehm did not want to go to war, but, fearing "cut off all his paths for himself," he also signed up as a volunteer.

He was one of the first to be killed. From the wounds he received in the eyes, he could not find shelter, lost his landmark and was shot. And in a letter to Kropp, their former mentor Kantorek sends his regards, calling them "iron guys." So thousands of Kantoreks fool young people.

The guys find their other classmate, Kimmerich, in a field hospital with an amputated leg. Franz Kimmerich’s mother asked Paul to look after him, "because he is just a child." But how to do it at the forefront? Just looking at Franz is enough to understand that he is hopeless. While Franz was unconscious, his watch was stolen, his favorite watch received as a gift. True, there were excellent English boots from leather to the knees, which he no longer needed. He is dying in front of his comrades. Suppressed, they return to the hut with Franz's boots. Hysterics happen on the road with Kropp.

In the barracks replenishment of recruits. The dead are replaced by the living. One of the recruits says that they were fed one rutabaga. The Katchinsky miner (aka Kat) feeds the guy with beans and meat. Kropp offers his own version of the war: let the generals fight themselves, and the victor will declare his country a winner. And so others are fighting for them, who did not start the war and who absolutely do not need it.

The company with replenishment goes to the sapper works to the forefront. An experienced Kat teaches recruits how to recognize shots and tears and bury themselves from them. Listening to the "vague hum of the front," he suggests that at night "they will give them a light."

Paul reflects on the behavior of the soldiers on the front line, on how they are all instinctively connected with the ground, which I want to get into when the shells whistle. She appears to the soldier as “a silent, reliable intercessor, groaning and screaming, he believes her his fear and his pain, and she accepts them ... in those moments when he clings to her, squeezing her in his arms for a long time and tightly, when under fire the fear of death makes him dig deep into her face and body, she is his only Friend, brother, his mother. ”

As Kat had foreseen, high-density shelling. Claps of chemical shells. Gongs and metal rattles herald: "Gas, Gas!" All hope for mask tightness. A soft jellyfish fills all the funnels. We must get up, but there is shelling.

The guys count how many of them remain from the class. Seven dead, one in a madhouse, four injured - eight come out. Respite. They attach a wax cap over a candle and drop lice there and think about what everyone would do if it weren’t for the war. The main torturer arrives in the unit at the Himmelstos training exercises - the former postman. Everyone has a tooth on him, but they have not yet decided how to take revenge on him.

The offensive is being prepared. At the school, coffins smelling of resin were laid in two tiers. Cadaverous rats divorced in the trenches, and there is no way they can handle them. Due to the shelling, it is impossible to deliver food to the soldiers. The rookie has a seizure. He is eager to jump out of the dugout. The attack of the French - and they are being pushed to the reserve line. Counterattack - and the guys come back with trophies in the form of canned goods and drinks. Continuous mutual shelling. The killed are laid in a large funnel, where they already lie in three layers. All are "weak and numb." Himmelstos hides in a trench. Paul makes him go on the attack.

Only 32 remained from the company of 150 people. They were taken to the rear farther than usual. The nightmares of the front are smoothed out with irony ... They say about the deceased that he "screwed up his ass." In the same tone and about another. This saves you from insanity.

Paul is called to the office and issued a vacation certificate and travel documents. He excitedly looks out of the window of the car "border posts of his youth." Here is his house. Mother is sick. In their family, it is not customary to express feelings, and her words “my dear boy” say a lot. The father wants to show his son in the uniform to his friends, but Paul does not want to talk with anyone about the war. He seeks solitude in the quiet corners of restaurants over a beer or in his room, where everything is familiar to the smallest detail. A German teacher calls him into the pub. There, familiar patriotic educators bravoly discuss how to “beat the Frenchman”. They treat him with beer and cigars, and at the same time make plans to seize Belgium, the coal regions of France and large chunks of Russia. Paul goes to the barracks, where two years ago they were trained. His classmate Mittelshted, who was sent here after the infirmary, reports the news: Kantorek was taken into militia. A cadre military man is training a cool mentor according to his own scheme.

Paul goes to Kimmerich’s mother and tells her about the instant death of her son from a wound in the heart. His story is so convincing that she believes.

And again the barracks where they were trained. Near a large camp of Russian prisoners of war. Paul is standing at the Russian camp. He ponders, looking at these people with "children's faces and beards of the apostles", about who turned ordinary people into enemies and murderers. He breaks cigarettes and halves, through the net, passes them to the Russians. Every day they bury the dead and sing requiem.

Paul is sent to his unit, where he meets old friends. A week they are driven on the parade ground. Issue a new uniform on the occasion of the arrival of the Kaiser. The Kaiser does not produce impressions on the soldiers. Disputes erupt again over who starts the war and why they are needed. Take the French hard worker, why would he attack us! This is all the authorities come up with.

Rumor has it that they will be sent to Russia, but they will be sent to the very heat, to the front line. The guys go in intelligence. Night, rockets, shooting. Paul got lost and does not know which side of their trenches. Paul awaits the day in a funnel - in water and mud - pretending to be dead. He lost the gun and is preparing a knife in case of melee. A stray French soldier falls into his funnel. Paul rushes at him with a knife ... As night falls, Paul returns to his trenches. He is shocked - for the first time he killed a man who, in essence, did nothing to him.

The soldier is sent to guard the food warehouse. Six people from their squad survived: Kat, Albert, Mueller, Tiaden, Leer, Deterling - all here. They find in the village the most reliable concrete basement. Mattresses and even a mahogany bed with a canopy of blue silk with lace and feather beds are dragged from the houses of runaway residents. Sometimes the soldier’s ass is not averse to soaking up the soft. Paul and Kat are sent to scout the village. She is under heavy artillery fire. They find in the barn two frolicking piglets. Preparing a great treat. The village burns from shelling, and the warehouse is dilapidated. Now you can drag everything that’s horrible from it. This is used by both the guards and the passing drivers. Feast in Time of Plague.

A month later, the carnival ended and they were again taken to the front line. The marching column is fired. Albert and Paul enter the Cologne monastery infirmary. The wounded are constantly brought in and the dead taken away. Alberta amputated leg to the very top. After recovery, Paul is again at the forefront. The situation is hopeless. American, English and French regiments are advancing on the conquered Germans. Muller is killed by a rocket. Kata, wounded in the shin, Paul on the back takes out from under fire, but during the dashes Kata wounds a splinter in the neck and he dies. Paul remains the last of his classmates to go to war. Everyone is talking about an imminent truce.

Paul was killed in October 1918. Then it was quiet and the military reports were brief: "On the Western Front, no change."