Canadian writer and British politician Gilbert Parker, who was responsible for much of the propaganda that helped to cause the entrance of the United States into World War I, is better known for his novels that take into account French Canadian history and life.This fictional novella with a historical background is set in the mid eighteenth century primarily in the British and French colonies of North America during the French and Indian War in 1763. Frenchman Pierre Iberville becomes an envoy to New York to negotiate with the British in their dealings with the native Iroquois Indians. Here, he meets a wide cast of characters that will change the rest of his life; the young Jessica Leveret, George Gering, Iberville's archrival; and the "mutineer and pirate" Edward Bucklaw all play an important role in the transformation of Pierre Iberville from an impetuous young man into a rational adult and in his choice "between the woman and the sword."