The heroes of this historical fiction book are two orphaned brothers, Tom and Peter Scudamore. They tell the story of the Peninsular War how they see it through their eyes. This war was a military conflict between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war started when French and Spanish armies occupied Portugal in 1807 and escalated in 1808, when France turned on its ally, Spain.