While the whole world continues to hold its breath in shock in the first days following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the US government sends a first ground special unit of only twelve elite soldiers to Afghanistan on an extremely life-threatening mission. Mitch Nelson, the still quite new commanding captain, leads his men directly into the impassable area of the Hindu Kush mountains in order to convince the Afghan Northern Alliance, which controls there, to form a hitherto unimagined alliance in the fight against the common opponents of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters with diplomatic skill and great courage. Mutual distrust and seemingly enormous cultural differences complicate cooperation no less than the lack of modern equipment. The unfamiliar and archaic combat strategies of the Afghan cavalry soldiers pose further dangerous challenges for the high-tech trained US elite soldiers. The numerically far superior, merciless opponent soon makes the chances of survival of the unequal allies seem completely hopeless ...