Along with hundreds of others, British trader and businessman Ryder Courtney is trapped in the capital city of Khartoum. It is here that he meets Captain Penrod Ballantyne of the 10th Hussars, as well as the British Consul, David Benbrook and his three beautiful daughters. Against the vivid and bloody backdrop of the Siege of Khartoum, in which British General Charles George Gordon is killed and the British retreat, these three powerful men fight to survive.
The Courtneys meet the Ballantynes in Wilbur Smith's epic adventure.