This volume of the Hawker Chronicles is set at the time of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. The young Andrew Hawker travels from Huntingdonshire to Scotland to reclaim his ancestral castle, falls in love with a beautiful Jacobite lady, and takes up arms against King George II and the ruling House of Hanover. Joining the Young Pretender Bonnie Prince Charlie on his doomed invasion of England, Andrew's dreams of a romantic, chivalric campaign are soon shattered by the harsh realities of 18th Century warfare, where no quarter is given to rebels by a corrupt and vicious enemy.