1808. As Napoleon’s conscript armies smash their way across Europe, a small British expeditionary force lands on the coast of Portugal. Its mission: to support Portuguese efforts to eject the French from their country. Young cavalrymen Corporal Joshua Lock and Lieutenant the Honourable John Killen disembark with the 20th Light Dragoons. But their unlikely three-year friendship, forged in the aftermath of a near-fatal accident, ends tragically when Lock is killed in a French ambush. So when his regiment marches to meet the French in battle, will Killen live to honour his father’s memory? And is Lock really dead?