Henri, an orphaned child of peasant farmers in Napoleonic-era France, enters the military and rises through the ranks in the Grande Armée from boy drummer to officer. Along the way, he meets the love of his life, and she follows on his journey through Napoleon's wars, the disastrous retreat from Russia, and to finality at Waterloo. With the allied forces close on their heels and probable imprisonment, they devise an escape from an occupied France.