As America battles the British and struggles against its own internal dissension, the lives of three young doctors, intimately entwined by the historical events around them, are detailed in all their glory and, occasionally, their shame. While the cunning Dr. Asa Peabody schemes his way to a fortune under General Benedict Arnold, and Dr. Lucius Devoe strains under the demands of a central army hospital, the dashing Dr. Peter Burnham becomes a ship's surgeon on a privateer and witnesses some of the most tumultuous moments of the war. On the terror-ridden Danish island of St. Jan, Burnham finds a passionate love that redeems and emboldens his life.