Major Richard Sharpe is given command of the land forces, primarily two rifle companies, one of them led by his friend, Captain William Frederickson.

Colonel Wigram and Royal Navy Captain Horace Bampfylde, the naval commander, also want to incite a monarchist rebellion in Bordeaux, only 25 miles away, based on rumours of unrest.

Sharpe fears his wife Jane is sick with fever, as she has been regularly visiting his good friend Lieutenant Colonel Hogan, who is dying of it.

Bampfylde changes plans without warning, ordering Sharpe to set up an ambush on the road to Bordeaux, while he reserves the supposedly easy capture of the fortress for himself and his Marines.

Sharpe then gains entry to the fortress by a ruse, accompanied by Regimental Sergeant Major Harper and Captain Frederickson; his men follow and defeat the stronger-than-anticipated garrison.

There, de Maquerre claims Bordeaux has risen in open rebellion and insists that Sharpe march his men there to support it, showing him a document make him a "Major General" in the "Royalist Army".

Calvet rejects the surrender and personally leads an attack, but Sharpe fights a delaying action, and he and his men manage to board the American privateer.

The adaptation gave Maquerre a sister, Catherine, who remains behind at the fort when it is captured by the British and serves as a secondary love interest for Sharpe.