Captain Thomas Forsyth's tour of Afghanistan is cut brutally short when he's badly wounded by an IED - an Improvised Explosive Device, a roadside bomb. Tom's world is torn apart by the injury: the Army is his life. Six months of recuperation leave is a daunting prospect - but not as bleak as the probability of never rejoining his regiment. Tom returns to Lambourn, to his childhood home, where his mother is a racehorse trainer and the 'First Lady' of racing. Never having seen eye to eye with his parent, Tom doesn't expect a hero's welcome - but even he's not prepared for the reception that awaits him. When his mother's prize horse finishes a vastly disappointing third in a race it should have won, Tom discovers that the training business is on the edge, and facing a threat far more dangerous than a run of bad form. Tom finds himself on a very different, but just as deadly, battlefield where his military skills are tested...kill or be killed?