The year is 1868 and Japan is about to erupt in the Boshin War. In the third installment of the GRAYBACK series, Bertram Tambling, former sharpshooter from Virginia, is at the end of his two year contract in Kyoto. Faced with uncertainty as to his future path, he decides to accept an officer's commission from the emperor who has decided to rebel against the Shogun. However, Bertram soon discovers he may be in over his head. While he excels as a commander on the battlefield, he is far from prepared to battle in the field of politics. Right and wrong become difficult to decipher, and when he crosses paths with a band of daring French mercenaries, Bertram is forced to question everything he thought as truth. The increasingly bloody conflict also begins to awaken nightmarish memories of the desperate months he spent in the trenches of Petersburg three years earlier, further skewing his sense of reality. As he struggles with his faith, purpose, and the very definition of honor, he unexpectedly finds himself led down a path that could make him what he never thought possible: a traitor.