At the start of the Great War, Herr Mueller (Russell Gleason) whips Paul (Lew Ayres) and the rest of his class into a frenzy promising them glory, quick victory, and the honor of serving their country if they join the Germany army. Paul and his friends enlist en masse and find, instead of the fine things promised by Mueller, a dirty, degrading hard training followed by miserable conditions and meaningless and horrible deaths as the war takes them one by one. Only the tutelage of the veteran Kat (Louis Wolheim) enables Paul and a few of his friends to survive for any length of time at all. Will any of the men survive to see war's end?
