Spring 1855. With the Russian city of Sebastopol still standing strong against the allies' siege, the British must search for unlikely help among the self-reliant mountain people of Circassia. Commander Phillip Hazard of HMS Huntress is dispatched with a select handful of his crew to seek out the bloodthirsty guerilla leader Serfir Pasha and win him over as an ally. Guided by an expatriate Polish officer and his dangerously competent daughter, Hazard and his men brave the sheer mountain passes and the savagery of the Cossacks to carry out their orders.