It is the winter of 1813. Wellington is gathering the forces preparing for the final push into France. Napoleon has dispatched his best agent, Major Ducos to find out where the invasion will begin. Newlywed Richard Sharpe must leave his wife to go on a mission in the Pyrenees, capturing a French castle while Wellington forces a passage through Napoleon's flank. A deadly fever has swept through the British camp and Sharpe's wife is infected and close to death.