13th century France. To live, to survive, requires weapons. Which do you choose? Weapons of war, which give the power to punish and kill? Or the sword of knowledge, which gives the power to read and heal? Two brothers, separated long ago, must do battle. Alongside, and coming between them, a woman... Thomas, the mercenary, his body marked by scars of varying degrees of valor, left the family farm many years ago. When he returns, his mother, the local healer, is dead. She passed on her skills to her younger son, Arnaud. But he has lost his memory after a beating from a gang of ruthless outlaws. And so, Arnaud's young and defiantly resourceful wife, Guillemette, must persuade Thomas to help her in the quest for lost knowledge.
In the year 1215, the rebel barons of England have forced their despised King John to put his royal seal on the Magna Carta, a seminal document that upheld the rights of free men. Yet within months of pledging himself to the great charter, the King reneged on his word and assembled a mercenary army on the south coast of England with the intention of bringing the barons and the country back under his tyrannical rule. Barring his way stood the mighty Rochester castle, a place that would become the symbol of the rebel's momentous struggle for justice and freedom.
Norway, 1204. A civil war between the birkebeiners —the king's men— and the baglers —supporters of the Norwegian aristocracy and the Church— ravages the country. Two men must protect a baby, the illegitimate son of King Håkon, who will be the future king and peacemaker, from those who want to kill him.
On his deathbed, the reigning king bestows power to an unexpected heir who must find strength within himself to unite his people against the violent crusades which threaten their freedom.
Assigned to accompany two priests on a mission to convert the court of Kublai Khan to Christianity, Marco Polo is abandoned in the mountains when the priests, doubting the very existence of China, turn back. Polo eventually pushes bravely forth alone toward the fabled country where he is accepted as an envoy into Khan's court. Marooned on the far side of the world, Polo, accompanied by his servant, Pedro, advances as a Mongol grandee for twenty extraordinary years. What he eventually brings back with him to the West is a chronicle that changed history forever.
When two brothers are forced to fight in the Korean War, the elder decides to take the riskiest missions if it will help shield the younger from battle.