Will Campbell longs to become a Knight Templar, but first he must serve as apprentice to the foul-tempered scholar Everard, a man of dangerous secrets.

Amir Baybars has fought his way from slavery to become a fearsome commander, driven by an unquenchable desire to free his people from the European invaders of the Holy Land.

These two men are destined to collide in that extraordinary clash of civilisations known in the West as the Crusades.