North Carolina, 1771: the conflict between the rich colonial planters and the struggling backcountry pioneers is threatening to explode. Jamie Fraser is a man of worth - possessed at last of the land he has longed for. But Jamie has a lot to lose. His wife, Claire, is known notoriously as a wisewoman or a witch. As a traveller from the twentieth century she is all these things and more. Her unique view of the oncoming Revolution is both a torch that may light Jamie's way in the perilous years ahead or the spark that may ignite a conflagration that will leave their lives in ashes. Claire and Jamie know war only as those can who have survived it can. And they will have to use all that knowledge, and more, to follow the path of the fiery cross to battle once more... and try to survive it if they can.