England during the Civil War. 1642/45. Repressed Lady Judith, unhappily married to Parliamentarian supporter Lord Steven Ashley, is surprised when he brings an enemy prisoner to their manor house. The handsome Cavalier is addressed as Captain, but is in fact a woman, Countess Antonia Durward, and she heads a troop of soldiers, male and female. Eighteen year old Judith hates her middle-aged husband, who thinks it his right to chastise her for the smallest misdemeanour. She and the Countess escape and Judith joins Durward's she-soldiers, their lives fraught with danger as the war progresses and the Royalists face defeat. They head for France where she helps Isobel Thorley, a wickedly attractive bisexual courtesan, open a high-class brothel. At last Judith is enjoying a freedom never before experienced, and swears never to return to her husband and the Puritan way of life...