Paul Bäumer, the narrator, and his fellow German soldiers of the Second Company recuperate behind the front in World War I. The last day of fighting thinned their ranks from 150 men to 80. Paul describes three 19-year-old boys from his class who also volunteered for the war: Albert Kropp, the "clearest thinker" among them; Müller, a physics-inclined academic; and Leer, sexually mature. Their friends include Tjaden, a 19-year-old locksmith; Haie Westhus, a large peat-digger, …showed first 75 words of 1602 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1602 total…his class are left. They hope for an armistice to bring peace. Paul is unsure if he has fully subdued all the life within him, but feels it will "seek its own way out" somehow. In third-person narration, we learn that Paul died in October, 1918, on a day otherwise so calm that the army report merely stated "All quite on the Western Front." Paul's face seemed calm, "as though almost glad the end had come."