The year is 1776. Rosanna Hall enters the debut of womanhood, right as the American colonies have charged into war against Great Britain and solidified their resolve by publishing a declaration of independency. Rosanna's father, a staunch Whig, donates the entirety of his fortune to the Continental Congress, which ruins all of her future prospects. Finding herself destitute and friendless, Rosanna bitterly abandons her parents and turns to prostitution as her only means of survival. Though Rosanna blames her parents and the Continental Congress for all her troubles, she is horrified to witness the murder of a young rebel soldier made into sport by the Tories. Unable to live with such people, she takes the murdered soldier's uniform and joins Washington's army, masquerading as a man. Into the ranks of diseased, disillusioned men she marches. Rosanna strains against the love of an officer who discovers her sex on one side, and the determination of a British colonel to dominate her on the other.