The 'Soldiers Three' are three privates, Terence Mulvaney, Stanley Ortheris and John Learoyd, each telling in his broadest dialect (Irish, Cockney and North Country) stories of mischief and pranks among the other ranks in India. Further sections in the book tell of the life of an officer in the dialogue of drawing-room comedy, and of the sahibs in general as seen by the Indians themselves. This book was enormously popular when it first appeared, and has been a classic ever since.