Lord Wellington (Hugh Fraser) orders his young major Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean) to run ahead of the march to defeat Napoleonic forces and take control of a castle along the way. The impediments to the mission include an inexperienced and dubious officer named Colonel Horace Bampflyde (Christopher Villiers) and the minor medical incapacity of Sharpe’s top sergeant, Sgt. Major Patrick Harper (Daragh O’Malley). Wellington is suspicious of the French spies upon whom he relies, and only Sharpe and his team may be able to provide reliable information. The French, under Major Pierre Ducos (Feodor Atkine), could be disseminating disinformation to lead the British forces to catastrophe.