In the alternative history scenario of the novel and series,
Swedish king
Gustavus Adolphus has, with the aid of the time-displaced citizens of
Grantville,
West Virginia, tipped the balance in the
Thirty Years' War and become emperor of much of Germany, now reorganized as the United States of Europe. Having at least temporarily sidelined
Austria and
France, the main enemies of the new state, he is free to turn his attention to the rebellious states of
Brandenburg and
Saxony and pursue his dream of conquering
Poland. The former are duly reconquered and the latter invaded.
West Virginian Mike Stearns, former prime minister of the USE and now a major general in command of the army's third division of the USE army, acquits himself well in the campaign, but atrocities committed by some of his men lead him to establish the Hangman Regiment to police his own forces, under the command of new-minted Light Colonel Jeff Higgins. Meanwhile, on the home front, other sequences of events involve Mike's wife Rebecca Abrabanel and the Swedish royal family. French
Huguenots attempt to assassinate Gustavus's daughter
Princess Kristina and her betrothed
Prince Ulrik in an attempt to provoke the wrath of the Swedes and Danes against
Cardinal Richelieu and the government of their Catholic-ruled country. The prince and princess escape, though her mother, the queen
Maria Eleonora, is murdered. Gustavus's eastern war is stalled in the battle of Lake Bledno, in which he gains a strategic victory but receives a life-threatening wound. His hitherto-loyal chancellor
Axel Oxenstierna takes the opportunity to seize power in an attempt to reverse the democratizing influence of the West Virginians, endangering the USE at a critical juncture. ==Literary significance and reception==