The Flight of the Heron is set in Scotland during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart, known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, to regain the British throne for his father. It follows the story of an unlikely friendship between a young Jacobite and Highland chieftain Ewen Cameron of Ardroy, who follows Bonnie Prince Charlie in his bid for the throne, and a Government Army Officer, the Englishman Captain Keith Windham of the Royal Scots. In the battle of Culloden Captain Windham gets caught in an ambush, thrown of his horse and left alone by his cowardly recruits. Cameron finds him and attempts to take him prisoner, but Windham refuses to surrender, and they have a swordfight. Highlander wins the fight after the Englishman passes out, and captures him. However, Windham manages to escape, but by the prophecy of Cameron's visionary foster father, the two men are about to cross paths five times. The tale focuses on the growing friendship between the two enemies, as each man realizes that the other is in fact a man of great integrity, honesty and dignity.