A Strange Turn of Fortune is the first novel in the saga, The Eagle and the Lion by Laurel Robinson. American, Anne Morgan is on her first sea voyage to England when her ship is badly damaged in a storm. She is thrown ashore and finds herself stranded on a French beach shortly after the end of the Napoleon's final rampage through Europe. She is rescued by a regiment of British Riflemen; members of The Prince Consort's Own 95th Regiment of Foot. It is led by the handsome dashing Major John Hamilton, a recent widower whose unhappy marriage left him with a jaundice view of women. With the help of his best friend, Regimental Sergeant Major Daniel Browne, the two are wed, thus beginning the saga of these unforgettable characters as they chart their way through the highs and lows of life, love, and the complicated societal norms of post Napoleonic England and America.