In October 1863, Ian Steele, having taken on the identity of Captain
Samuel Forbes, is fighting the Pashtun on the north-west frontier in
India. Half a world away, the real Samuel Forbes is a lieutenant in the
3rd New York Volunteers and is facing the Confederates at the Battle of
Mission Ridge in Tennessee. Neither is aware their lives will change
beyond recognition in the year to come. In London, Ella, the love of
Ian's life, is unhappily married to Count Nikolai Kasatkin. As their
relationship sours further, she tries to reclaim the son she and Ian
share, but Nikolai makes a move that sees the boy sent far from Ella's
reach. As 1864 dawns, Ian is posted to the battlefields of the Waikato
in New Zealand, where he comes face to face with an old nemesis. As the
ten-year agreement between Steele and Forbes nears its end, their foe is
desperate to catch them out and cruel all their hopes for the future...