The Four Feathers is the story revolving around Harry Feversham, the son of a British general. He is haunted by both his family's remarkable history of service in the British army and the stories of cowardice that he had heard told as a boy during his father's annual "Crimea Nights" reunions. Due to his fear of becoming a coward and staining his ancestors' reputation, Harry resigns his commission in the East Surrey Regiment just prior to Sir Garnet Wolseley's expedition to Egypt to suppress the rising of Urabi Pasha. This is followed by the plot where three of his comrades, Captain Trench and Lieutenants Castleton and Willoughby, send him three white feathers to express their disapproval of his act, and his Irish fiancée, Ethne Eustace, presents him with a fourth feather and breaks their engagement. Harry's best friend in the regiment, Captain Durrance becomes his rival for Ethne.
