The place is London, England, in the spring of 1815. The initial elation of the European Alliance in defeating Napoleon Bonaparte, at Toulouse on the 10th April 1814, had all but subsided, and given way to the reality of a day to day struggle for survival faced by the common people. Hard hit were the soldiering classes, many had been slain in the Peninsular wars, and many of those who had survived the conflict had been stood down from their regiments at the end of the war and sent home penniless, and, in many cases, broken men as a result of injuries sustained in battle. However, the specter of Bonaparte returning to France from exile on Elba fuels the urgency of the British, and their allies, to rebuild an army to do battle with him on the killing fields of Waterloo. Newlyweds Michael, a Captain in the Wellington's army, and his wife Agnes are two persons caught up in these uncertain times.