After being wrongly accused he had been given a choice : join the army or stay in prison for life.. Robbie had no the choice but the Join the mission. The only way Robbie could cope with the war was those sweets letters that his lovers sent him, they would come once a month he was lucky, reading those caring words about her daily life helped him enormously. We're in the second world war. The cold mornings in the French coast greeted Robbie daily as he checked for any possible reply from his previous letter.