Arvin captures the peculiar back and forth of war: long periods of waiting broken up with flashes of deadly violence. In the lulls Heck struggles with the growing realization that he is a coward. Even before he reaches the fighting Heck wrestles with this demon. In an encounter with a young French woman and her brother he manages to do the right, and courageous, thing, but only after an obvious, and wrenching, hesitation. Later, when faced with the possibility of sex with the young woman (named Claire), his fear overcomes him and he runs away. He is assigned a unit and sent to the fighting the next morning.

Each time Heck faces danger he seems incapable of action; his fear incapacitates him and further isolates him. And yet he avoids the oblivion of death or the "escape" of serious injury. While Heck avoids both using his M1 and getting killed, death is all around him: a soldier sets off a booby-trapped log; a sniper picks off his unit's radioman; a box of Nazi paraphernalia explodes in a house-to-house search; an icicle falls from a barn killing a soldier in the mess line. Heck is trapped between his cowardice and his desire to prove it wrong. He ponders desertion but can't imagine facing his dad after such an act. He can't even bring himself to intentionally get trench foot.

Throughout this process his thoughts turn to Claire and she hovers in his imagination as an escape. As he fingers the music box she gave him, he longs to get away and search for her. He even fantasizes of marrying her and returning to America. But when confronted with an opportunity to see her, his fear gets the better of him again. When his plan to get sent home backfires, however, he is brought face to face with the repercussions of cowardice. Heck is assigned to the shooting squad for the execution of a deserter.

Here the mental trap is complete. Heck, who knows in his heart he is as much a coward as the deserter, must either kill a man or face the consequences. He contemplates breaking the prisoner free and escaping but is prevented from even trying by a blizzard. When this "plan" dissolves he feels both relived and "disgusted at this relief." Try as he might, he "could see no path before him that was not stained with cowardice." In the end, Heck fires his bullet when given the command.