In this final volume of Stuart's Sheridan series, General Havelock's Moveable Column—a force of barely a thousand men—has finally fought its way through to the heroic garrison defending the Residency in Lucknow, only to be besieged themselves by the 60,000 mutinous sepoys in the city. They must hold firm until the relieving force reaches them. Meanwhile, Colonel Alex Sheridan volunteers for a dangerous mission, but is captured. He is soon called upon to fight a much more personal war: assassination of the very man who ordered the deaths of his wife and child!