It is 1819 and Matthew Hervey, in mourning for his beloved wife and disillusioned with military life, is kicking his heels in Rome when a chance encounter with an eminent English poet leads him to rethink his future.

Spurred on, he is reunited with his much depleted regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons, and immediately charged with raising a new troop, for India beckons once again. But what begins as a relatively simple operation becomes a dark and dangerous march through the jungle as Hervey and his ill-equipped and inexperienced soldiers race to confront the Burmese war-boats massing on the borders…