The story begins before the fall of Khartoum at the hands of a charismatic religious leader who has fashioned himself as ‘the Guided one’ after decades of brutal misgovernment by the ruling Egyptian Khedive in Cairo precipitates a bloody rebellion and Holy War. The charismatic new religious leader, the Mahdi or 'the Guided one', has gathered his forces of Arab warlords in preparation for a siege on the city of Khartoum. His army of fanatical believers strike fear into the citizens of Khartoum and the British subjects there and all supply lines into the city are blocked with no escape route.