A story of courage and might, Major Billy Pentecost commands a remote desert outpost near Hahdhdhah, deep among the bleak hills of Khalit where he is given orders to prepare to move out along with a handful of British soldiers. Outside the fort, tribesmen stream, impatient to reclaim the land of their blood and commanded by Abd el Aziz el Beidawi, a feared Arab warrior lord. A friendship forms between the two very different men but when Pentecost's orders are reversed, a nightmarish tragedy ensues.