The Unknown Digger is Australia’s most famous WWI poet. But for decades, his identity has remained a mystery. Enter Matthew Denton - a PhD student at University College, London - who believes the unknown digger to be fact one of Australia’s greatest war heroes - Lieutenant Alan Lewis VC of the 10th Light Horse.

As the story of Lieutenant Lewis, fighting his way across Sinai, Palestine, Jordan and Syria unfolds, the question of what makes him a poet, a lover and a hero becomes a troubled one. Meanwhile, in the footnotes, scholar Matt Denton is fighting his own battles with romance and with academia as he attempts to rewrite literary history.