World War I was inflicting a terrible toll; by the end of 1915 it was clear that not enough men were volunteering to fight. The Military Service Act became law on March 2nd 1916. After that date all single men between the ages of 18 and 40 were deemed to be in the army, and were required to register. Later that year married men were also included. Some men registered but refused to fight and were sent into the Non-Combatant Corps (NCC) as stretcher bearers, caterers etc. Other men refused even to register and were Absolutist Conscientious Objectors; sixteen of these men were, for a short while, imprisoned in the Norman Castle of Richmond in North Yorkshire; they became known as the Richmond Sixteen. This fictionalised story follows the fortunes of three people. Joseph, one of the Richmond Sixteen, Daniel a member of the NCC as he tried to support fighting men by being a stretcher-bearer and Annie a volunteer nurse who went not only to work but also to search for her brother.
