The First World War breaks out, and with it, the first of several family tragedies befalls the Godwin family. Robert's brothers Lionel and Edmund are sent to France, where Lionel is killed in action and Edmund is left psychologically maimed, leaving Robert broken and despondent. He takes up mountaineering, and goes off by himself periodically, leaving a bored and slightly paranoid Ginevra alone in their rural setting, with uncomfortable relations with her inlaws, including straitlaced and judgmental John. She travels to London frequently, to see girlfriends and drink away her worries. Robert confides to Ginevra that following a friend's death in a mountaineering accident, he is terrified of the prospect of dying, especially more so now that Lionel is dead. Robert eventually decides to retire to Oxmoon with Ginevra, but even then that is not the end of their tribulations.