A small British army is stranded when the French invade northern Portugal. Sharpe is cut off and his attempts to fight his way back to the British lines fail until he is joined by the future Duke of Wellington.They immediately mount a counter-attack and Sharpe, having been the hunted, becomes the hunter once more. Amidst the wreckage of a defeated army, in the storm lashed hills of the Portuguese frontier, Sharpe takes his revenge.