On a November evening in 1812, Jethro Stanton, son of a Luddite and needle-pointer of Redditch town, stops at a remote wayside alehouse in Shropshire to find himself drawn into the life and fortunes of OJ;le Thrpin Wright. This irrepressible rogue, fleeing the gallows, is evading a troop of dragoons trying to recapture him. When Jethro comes to his rescue they both become outlaws.
The pair take to the road. Their way leads them through colourful rustic fairs and a chilling interlude 'sin-eating' for the dead in the Welsh hills, to alehouse brawls and, finally, the arms of the Recruiters - and the rough life of a reserve company of Grenadiers in lusty, bustling Portsmouth. Among sailors and strumpets, vagabonds and cardsharps, officers and gentry, they meet Sarah Jenkins, there to try and free a French prisoner of war from the prison hulks in Portsmouth Sound. Against a rumbustious background of England during the Napoleonic Wars, Jethro's story is one filled with love and adventure.