1812. On the eve of the invasion of Russia, half-French, half-English Matthieu Carrey finds himself in the ranks of Napoleon’s five hundred thousand strong army. With Tsar Alexander seemingly ill-prepared, a French victory seems certain. The Grande Arm?e will obliterate everything in its path. Carrey’s purpose is less clear. Blackmailed into becoming a spy in the emperor’s army, he hopes to follow his lover, a French actress who has gone to work in the Moscow theatre. Food and fodder grow scarce. The countryside teems with Cossacks, Russia’s fearsome light cavalry, forcing imperial messenger Carrey to run a lethal daily gauntlet. Closer to home, he is increasingly pressured by his English handler to pass information to the Russians, and receives endless challenges to duel from another enemy, an arrogant cavalry officer.