The staff at the British Embassy make hasty plans to leave the country, but one of the military attaches, Captain Tony Davis, is separated from his comrades. Together with a motley group of refugees he escapes the city into the mountains of the west and begins a breath-taking series of adventures as he encounters the remnants of the Serb army, the dreaded Ustase terrorists and, eventually, the Partisans led by Josip Broz, alias Tito.
He rapidly becomes a legend, both for his fighting ability and his capacity for survival, but his personal life is bedevilled by the rivalry between two women: earthy Croat Elena and the delicate French journalist Sandrine.