It is 1602 and the English are victorious. The battle of Kinsale has been lost but the great Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill, has returned to his territory and still has loyal followers. Rory O'Neill, his kinsman and giolla (attendant) is too young to understand the politics but he has no doubt about his devotion to a really great man. For the next five years, from 1602 to 1607, he will share with his master hunger, privation and humiliation and be his closest confidant when he and the Earl of Tyrconnell decide at last to escape to Europe to carry on the struggle. Hugh O'Neill's party eventually settles in Rome. In all the years between they are never out of danger - even the sea voyage has its own perils.