1709 - Europe is in the grip of the coldest winter for a century. Ports freeze. Cattle die. People starve. Mutiny and desertions rattle the French army leaving Louis X1V to search for peace on almost any terms. Captain Daniel Rawson acts as an interpreter at the negotiations in The Hague, feeling acute frustration when the talks collapse. While the resumption of war looms close at hand again, Daniel is given a personal mission by Marlborough himself which takes him deep behind enemy lines. If he survives, the Battle of Malplaquet, the bloodiest yet, awaits him...