The dark forest

<p>John Durward and John Trenchard are two Englishmen who join a company of Russian doctors, nurses, and orderlies working on the Russian side of the Eastern Front at the height of World War I. Durward, the primary narrator, is a detached and seemingly-objective observer of events; his friend Trenchard is a dreamy, clumsy, and naive man whose fiancee, Marie Ivanova, is serving alongside him as a nurse.</p> <p>The narrative follows the unlikely group as they are embedded in the Front, treating casualties and cholera victims while dodging shellings and enemy ambushes. At first the group seems to get along well enough, until Semyonov, a dark, charismatic, hyper-masculine doctor in their company, sets his romantic sights on Ivanova.</p> <p>As the medics desperately try to fulfill their duty among the brutal backdrop of the war, their intricate relationships become the centerpiece of a complex emotional narrative that winds through the dark forest, a symbol of the confusing shadows that can