It's 1807 and Sharpe has returned from India, survived Trafalgar and has now joined the newly-formed Greenjackets. But his career is nearly over; his future apparently hopeless. His latest mission is to travel to Copenhagen and deliver a bribe to the Danes, to stop them handing over possession of their battle fleet to the French. But he soon finds himself dragged into a war of spies and brutality and realises that he is just a sacrificial pawn...