The novel mixes fictional characters with historical events and figures, to narrate the story of the nascent United States of America during the time of the American Revolution.

While the novel continues the story of Philip Kent, started in The Bastard, a large portion focuses on Judson Fletcher, a newly introduced character, as a different rebel.

[1] Judson Fletcher, a drunkard and a womanizer, lives with his father on Sermon Hill, a large tobacco plantation on the Rappahannock River in northern Virginia.

Judson rides to meet his childhood friend George Rogers Clark, who is in town recruiting men for a military expedition to the Northwest Territory.

Parallel to this story, the novel continues the adventures of Philip Kent, the main character in the previous novel, as he participates in various notable events of the American Revolutionary War.

Don Johnson starred as Judson Fletcher and Andrew Stevens reprised his role as Philip Kent.