Lions of the Desert opens up in 1915, over a year after the conclusion of Arabian Winds. Nurse Allison Wescott arrives in busy Cairo to serve the British military confronting Kaiser's Germany and their ally, Turkey. In Cairo, Allison meets Major Bret Holden again after his return from London, and their previous romantic but rocky relationship is resumed. But the man she has been thinking of marrying has also arrived to serve as a chaplain with historical Oswald Chambers, who is ministering to British and Australian troops. In the dark and trying times of world war, Allison most come to grips with her divided heart and make a choice that she will live with for the rest of her life.