Colonel Andrew Maclaren has relinquished command of Maclaren's Highlanders and retired to his estate in Scotland, and Willie Bruce, risen from the ranks, has taken over. His son Donald is tested early in his career by one of the most brutal assignments that can fall to any soldier, and his military career is fated to end with a recommendation for the highest medal the Crown can bestow. Yet a key to the intermingled fortunes of the two families is Naomi Bruce, the illegitimate daughter of Willie's wife, Maud. She is to be a decisive influence both at home in Britain and in the midst of a great battle in Africa. Ian and Robert Maclaren as well as Donald and Gordon Bruce are as much the sons of the Regiment as of their fathers' their lives and deeds evoke the splendor of Britain's power and the sacrifice required to maintain it. Beside them stand the women who give this story its extraordinary human dimension.