Seventeen Years

Quiet and monotonous life in the countryside is abruptly interrupted by the moving front of the Polish-Russian war.

Colonel Maurice Taylor of the Royal Flying Corps is hopelessly injured in an airplane crash immediately following his marriage to Stella. Maurice is non-functional in most of the physical areas of marriage that count, but Stella attends to his other needs faithfully for three years. Then his brother, Colin, shows up from South America, and he and Stella fall passionately in love and are making plans to run away together. Mother Taylor is aware of the romance, as is Nurse Weyland, who is secretly in love with Maurice, and now hates Stella for her careless attitude toward Maurice's patiently-borne sufferings. Maurice is also aware of the affair. He has a talk with his wife and brother. Complications arise.

About the famous scientist-fortifier Karbyshev. After one of fights, hard wounded, it is taken prisoner in Mauthausen camp where within 1320 days conducts uncompromising struggle with fascism.

At 17, Breck Dunbarton is paroled from a reformatory and placed in the custody of his kindly Uncle Ezra, who assures him of his implicit trust and makes him equal heir with his other nephew, West. At college Breck is falsely accused of a theft, and following his expulsion he joins the Army and goes to France. At the front he meets Marie Moore, an ambulance driver; and learning of his uncle's death, he returns home after the Armistice. When Marie is sent to be Mrs. Dunbarton's companion, both Breck and West fall in love with her. Following the disappearance of some money and the robbery of a guest, suspicion falls on Breck, who is aware of West's connection with the affair but unable to find proof. Marie discovers that West, in disguise as Madame Volnova, is the thief; she is rescued by Breck and Mrs. Dunbarton; and West confesses, redeeming Breck's honor and giving him not only the fortune but also the girl.