In 1847 in Mexico, Lance Corporal Jason Jeremiah James of the 4th Kansas rifles fought at Chapultepee. on the parapet of that great fortress, James saw something that haunted him for fifteen years. In 1862, James is colonel of the 4th Regiment of La Legion etrangere--France's fabled Foreign Legion--and is again stationed in Mexico.

Educated in Paris, the lovely New Englander Sarah Kent Anderson has arrived in Mexico to look after her dead brother's silver mines. Although she is a girlhood friend of Empress Carlota of Mexico, Sarah quietly supports the republican president, Juarez. Her growing attraction toward Jason James only furthers her confusion.

As Sarah Anderson struggles to choose between her sympathy for Juarez and her love for the new emperor and empress, Jason James must not only come to grips with his torn loyalties and the woman he loves, he must stand again at Chapultepee and face the demons of his youth.