The first few chapters of Graves’s memoir provide a snapshot of typical upper-middle-class British life before World War I. Graves’s parents belong to a privileged class, tracing their heritage back hundreds of years to Ireland and Germany, respectively. Through commitment to the Church of England and rigorous education, the Graves teach their children "to be strong moralists" (13) and conform to societal expectations of them, including the "whole patriarchal system of things" (27). Graves and his siblings attend "typically good preparatory school[s]" (21), where "tradition was so strong that, to break it" (36), one would have to fire the entire staff and start from scratch. All of this prepares Graves for a life of being able to "masquerade as a gentleman" (10) when "dealing with officials" (10) or "getting privileges from public institutions" (10).

Though some try to cling to these values and traditions, World War I ruptures them. Like many soldiers, Graves finds that these values and traditions serve little purpose during the chaos and devastation of war. For those at home, the war becomes an abstraction and Graves, upon arriving in France, finds it "hard to reconcile" (97) accounts of war he's read in the British papers with the reality he faces.