Thirteen-year-old Jonathan is the main character of the story. Forbidden by his war-wounded father from becoming a soldier in the American Revolution, Jonathan runs away from home and joins up anyway. At his first battle, he’s captured by a trio of Hessian grenadiers who take him with them as they search for a place to hide. Jonathan finds that the Hessian soldiers are not the cruel monsters portrayed in stories, but ordinary men caught up in battle like himself. In his interactions with the soldiers, Jonathan is separated by a language barrier and his status as a prisoner of war, but he is indelibly connected to the soldiers by their humanity. His relationship with the Hessians, especially in their agreement to help bury the fallen farm family, humanizes the enemy. While there are sides to a conflict, Jonathan begins to realize one side is not inherently wrong, and he could just as easily belong to one side as the other.

Jonathan escapes the Hessians but returns with American volunteers who intend to capture the enemy soldiers, but he balks when his Corporal orders him to flush the Germans out so they can be shot. Jonathan’s hesitancy hinges on his realization that the Hessians are not the evil soldiers depicted in propaganda, but normal people supporting a cause in which they believe.