When seventeen-year-old William Hunter marches off to war in the spring of 1780, the Glorious Cause of the American Revolution seems all but lost. Many of the largest cities in his new country are occupied by the forces of King George III, and the noose is tightening around the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Leaving Bethesda Orphanage with nothing more than a kiss from Catherine DeLoach, William sets out to defend his country. His dreams of victory and glory are quickly smashed by the realities of war as he finds that he has enlisted in a desperate struggle against the most powerful empire in the World. William is imprisoned on the infamous prison ship, Packhorse. There his hopes and dreams are kept alive only through the letters he writes to Catherine, the beautiful Huguenot girl who waved him off to war with nothing more than a simple kiss and a promise he will keep at all costs.