The Good Soldier tells the stories of two outwardly happy couples who meet at a health spa in Germany just before the start of the First World War, and whose loveless, adultery-ridden relationships are strained and gradually disintegrate, with tragic consequences. Drawing inspiration from his own personal life, Ford Madox Ford innovatively used non-chronological flash-backs as well as an unreliable narrator to reveal the scandalous affairs, lies and betrayals behind the faade of respectability, and craft a masterly work of fiction and a subtle investigation of the notions of truth and deception.