Harry Feversham is a young officer in the British Guards, deeply in love with his fiancée Ethne, outwardly adventurous, but beset with a secret fear - that his courage will fail in combat. When orders come to embark for Sudan against the forces of the fanatical Mahdi, he resigns his commission. Shocked and disgusted, his three fellow-officers each send Harry a white feather - the symbol of cowardice. Worse yet, Ethne gives him a fourth, breaks off their engagement, and becomes engaged to Durrance, one of Harry's friends who was blinded during his time in Sudan. Humiliated past all endurance, Harry sets out alone for Sudan, intent on accomplishing a feat of arms that will wipe out his dishonor, or to die in the attempt. In doing so, he transforms not only his own character but that of his friends and his beloved. Set in the contrasting climes of Britain's green landscape and the unforgiving deserts of Sudan, 'The Four Feathers' is both a tale of high adventure and at the