Emilie Johnson didn't even know where Hull was. But when she is offered a part playing her great-great-grandmother, Annie Hartley, in a new family history programme, events in Hull almost a hundred years ago begin to dominate her life. She learns of Annie's husband John Hartley and the shame he brought to the family during the Great War. As she tracks his East Yorkshire battalion through the gas, mud and fatally flawed Flanders offensives of a century ago, Emilie fears her career is over. And yet... Who will help Emilie to better understand her life, her humanity?