1857. After the fire of mutiny has swept through British India young Lieutenant Victor Narraway arrives at a battered military base at Cawnpore. It is just two weeks before Christmas but no one is able to celebrate: they have been betrayed. A soldier under arrest for dereliction of duty has killed a guard & escaped to join the rebels taking crucial information that led to the massacre of nine men on patrol. Someone must have helped him & medical orderly John Tallis is the only man unaccounted for at the time. He is now on trial for his life & Narraway is commanded to defend him. Narraway knows that his is an impossible task. The British Army needs justice to be carried out in full & there seems no doubt of Talliss guilt. But Narraway cannot see any motive for his actions. Will an innocent man hang before Christmas?