"The Ranks of Men" is the story of the troubled relationship between two brothers, Shane and Conan. A childhood incident, whereby Conan allowed another boy beat up Shane, lies at the heart of their difficulties. Sitting in his armchair, drinking Wild Turkey at two in the afternoon, Shane looks out onto the green in his housing estate, and thinks about his life. The previous night, at his own birthday party, he saw his fiancee with another man, and did nothing about it. As the hours toll away and the bottle empties, he comes to see that there is little he can be proud of, that he is a coward, that his existence is worthless. He drinks mercilessly until he loses consciousness. Later that night, Conan finds him huddled asleep on his doorstep, and with palpable distaste, brings him inside and puts him to bed. Annoyed by his brother's presence, and resenting the obligations of family, Conan nevertheless feels a guilty responsibility to him, and determines to remould his brother's life into a more desirable shape. Conan selfishly encourages Shane to leave Ireland, and travel across America. While there Shane determines to accumulate the knowledge that will enable him to avoid confrontational situations in the future. He meets a beautiful girl, Geena, in New Orleans, and persuades her to accompany him. But self-doubt destabilises the relationship, and it falls apart when he cannot stop another man from crudely assaulting her, paralysed by fear. He joins the Marines in the hope that they will teach him how to fight, now believing that only violent beasts can survive in the world. But though he succeeds in transforming his nature, it comes at a terrible cost to both himself and his brother.