The year is 1775, and Major Giles Finch, a British military engineer, finds his predicament troubling. The turmoil in colonial North America has begun to boil into revolution, and British governors and military leaders in the thirteen colonies struggle to maintain control of their disobedient charges. Finch and his family are endangered by the depredations of the Sons of Liberty when local skirmishes in New England soon unfold into all-out conflict. As the revolution spreads, the engineer quickly finds himself serving as advisor to Military Governor Thomas Gage. First as a field observer, then later a military strategist, Finch must outwit the rebels on and off the battlefield, maintain the favor of his fellow officers, and keep his own family safe from the ravages of war.