When Gloriana agreed to cohost a formal dinner with her uncle, she did not know she was about to discover a plot to overtake her country. The pampered and sheltered young heiress soon found herself squeezed by several vises: Europe and Mexico, Church and state, liberal and conservative. The battle at Puebla on the Cinco de Mayo is by all accounts a minor skirmish, but one which electrified he world. That Napoleon's army should be routed by a ragtag band of ill-equipped campesinos was astounding. By unifying Mexicans across all cultural and racial lines, it gave them a bonding national identity. The account is told through the perspectives of the indio, mestizo, criollo and foreigner. Glimpsed by some historical figures, the The Cry of Gloriana recounts the events and conditions leading up to the battle resulting in an unsettled homogeny. Gloriana matures from a fickle beauty to a noble woman. To reconcile her feelings, Gloriana resolves alternatives between Europeans and her countrymen, the privileged and the deprived, and the romantic overtures from a French soldier and a guerillero. It culminates at the battle with her rallying cry.