The narrative begins with Vera's struggle to enter the University of Oxford and her romance with Roland Leighton, a friend of her brother Edward. Both were commissioned as officers early in World War I, and both were subsequently killed, as were several other members of their social circle.
The book's main subject is Vera's experiences as a volunteer nurse in war-torn Europe. It also describes how she returned, disillusioned, to Oxford after the war, and concludes with her meeting her husband for the first time.
The book was the subject of a highly successful dramatisation on BBC2 in 1979, starring Cheryl Campbell as Vera Brittain.