Death's Head illuminates a little-known but significant moment in history, one whose outcome resonates through the years to the present day. It is a story of war and love and the faith that enables ordinary men to perform extraordinary deeds. 1190 - Saladin's armies have overrun most of the Holy Land, prompting a great crusade from the West, led by Richard the Lionheart, King Philip of France, and the German emperor, Frederick Barbarossa. Unjustly accused of murder, an idealistic young monk named Roger flees his abbey and joins the vast tide of men headed for the East. In the Holy Land, Roger finds not glory, but death and misery as he takes part in the greatest military debacle of the Middle Ages - the siege of Acre. Roger makes a name for himself in the company known as the Death's Heads, and he falls in love under the most improbable circumstances. But as the months pass, and he watches the mightiest fighting force in the history of Christendom being destroyed by battle and disease and starvation, he suffers a soul-shattering crisis of faith, wondering how God could permit His children to indulge in such madness.