Two men sharing a hospital room after their diagnoses of terminal cancer struggle with fear, physical pain, the difficulties of being in hospital, family members unable to cope, loneliness, and their unusual friendship.

In 1919, the carnage of WWI has left the country desperately short of young men. Maud, who runs the farm for her crippled father, decides that it is time for her young sister Clara to be married, and a husband could provide a strong pair of hands around the place. Stan the pigman seems to fix most things, why not this?