Recently made an officer, Sharpe is beginning to wish he was still a sergeant, as he marches with Sir Arthur Wellesley's army as it closes in on the retreating Mahrattas in western India. Hakeswill has powerful friends and now he wants Sharpe dead. The Mahrattas have taken refuge in Gawilghur, an impregnable fortress, and with them is another enemy, the renegade Englishman, William Dodd, who does not envisage defeat, only a glorious triumph.