1884-Deep in the Sudanese deserts a crazed religious fanatic spawns violent bloodshed.In Victorian England Edward and Richard are twins, with a blessed life, enjoying their elite private school for boys, and with prospects of army commissions ahead.But then a woman's greed tears them apart and destroys their comfortable world. Even though their love is forbidden, for Edward there is no other in his life but Richard, and for Richard a life without Edward is unbearable. Has fate determined that they must lead their lives apart?As members of the British force engaged in a doomed bid to save heroic Gordon of Khartoum, besieged by the frenzied armies of the Mahdi, Edward and Richard, cruelly separated by events, and ignorant of the other's presence, are thrown into their own desperate adventures as the conflict rages on around them... One an officer, the other a lowly cavalry trumpeter, both find Muslim allies willing to risk all to see them through... Two lovers far from each other in a hostile world of enervating heat, unforgiving sand, rocky wastes, but also burning passions-will the young men overcome the ordeal of a life apart to achieve their dream of a destiny together?