Civilian Clothes

Summary

Set against the jagged, visceral tapestry of the First World War, Civilian Clothes chronicles the impulsive, fever-dream nuptials between Captain Sam McGinnis and Florence Lanham, a Salvation Army volunteer operating amidst the mud and thunder of the French front. Their union, born of wartime exigency and raw sentiment, is abruptly fractured when a clerical error leads Florence to believe Sam has perished in the fray. Retreating to the sterile, gilded sanctuary of her aristocratic American lineage, Florence buries the memory of her brief marriage, preserving her social standing within a family that breathes the rarefied air of the elite. The narrative pivot occurs when Sam, very much alive but stripped of his military regalia and cloaked in the drab, ill-fitting garments of a civilian, resurfaces to claim his bride. Confronted by Florence’s visceral recoil at his aesthetic unworthiness and her family's entrenched snobbery, Sam orchestrates a subversive psychological gambit. He clandestinely secures a position as the Lanham family’s butler, utilizing the proximity of service to dismantle their class-based prejudices from the inside out, transforming a tale of romantic reconciliation into a sharp-witted critique of the American social hierarchy.

Synopsis

During the First World War, Captain Sam McGinnis marries Florence Lanham, a Salvation Army worker in France. When she mistakenly hears that Sam has been killed, she returns home to her wealthy family without mentioning her brief marriage. But Sam turns up, alive but poorly dressed, and Florence is happy to see him but appalled at his clothing. Sam decides to teach her a lesson about her snobbishness and thus takes a job as the butler for Florence's family.