In the summer of 1683, 300,000 warriors of the Ottoman Empire began the siege of Vienna. The fall of the city would have opened the way to conquer Europe. On September 11. was the main battle between the Polish cavalry and the Turks.

Ali is an upper class Muslim man, whose family holds a great deal of power in Baku, Azerbaijan. At that time, before World War One, Azerbaijan was part of the Russian Empire. Nino, Ali's lover, is from neighboring Georgia and is Christian, but the two are deeply in love and elope to the countryside. The story follows the two, who get married, through World War One, which only sees some of Ali's friends sent off to war. After the Russians surrender, however, conflict comes to Baku. Ali fights the Bolsheviks with the Azerbaijani militia and Nino helps nurse wounded soldiers during the March Days massacre in Baku.

In 1821, during the first year of the Greek War for Independence and the rebellion against the Ottoman Empire, the twenty-year-old Greek woman, Anna-Christina, falls for the conflicted Turkish officer, Colonel Tariq, who is having second thoughts about his compatriots' brutal approach to governing. However, Tariq and Anna's fledgeling romance is bound to bring suffering not only to her family but also her community. As a result, bent on retaliating, Christina summons up the courage to take part in the Revolution, and, unintentionally, she becomes a local symbol of the ever-growing Greek resistance movement, inspiring her fellow brothers and sisters-in-arms to take action. But, sooner or later, Christina will have to face her long-buried feelings for the man who still cares for her; a pivotal moment that will lead to tragic results.

At the turn of the century, the young lord Vlad and his family live a peaceful life ruling over their small kingdom, but when a Turk warlord demands from Vlad a thousand boys and his son to create an army Vlad seeks a terrible power that will allow him to protect his kingdom and family from the Turks at a terrible cost.