Sword of War is the story of a man's dream playing havoc with his life. From his early childhood in Berlin Otto Hoffmann burns with the ambition to become a famous archaeologist like his hero Heinrich Schliemann, but runs into one disaster after the next. Fate just does not grant him his wish; in fact it would seem as if the gods are doing everything possible to break him. After a tumultuous year at Oxford and driven by passion he ventures into Southern Africa at the outbreak of the Anglo Boer War, and gets sucked into the maelstrom of death and suffering. Tested to the limit he clings to the two things that keeps him alive - his plans to excavate the ruins of Zimbabwe, and the love of the sweet English girl whose father is his bitterest enemy. In the end there is only one outcome, and it changes him beyond anything he ever imagined.