The village tavern bell rings an alarm while Jonathan and his father work their cornfield.

A tough army corporal recruits Jonathan at the tavern and tells him to borrow a musket.

Jonathan marches south with the volunteers toward Rocktown, struggling under the weight of his borrowed musket.

Thirty Hessian grenadiers in splendid colored uniforms march around the road's bend toward the waiting volunteers.

The battle erupts in chaos of smoke and noise, and Jonathan fires his weapon accidentally.

Jonathan finds himself standing alone before the advancing Hessian line and turns to flee into the forest.

Three Hessians surround Jonathan in the woods, and he jumps up with raised hands to surrender.

The Hessians tie a rope around Jonathan and lead him as a prisoner back down the road.

The group follows the sound of a lowing cow through the forest to an abandoned farmhouse.

Jonathan searches the farmhouse shed for a milk bucket and discovers a small, silent boy hiding there.

The boy points and leads Jonathan and the Hessians to his parents' bodies lying dead at the field's edge.

Jonathan demands the Hessians help bury the dead farm couple, and the youngest soldier digs the graves.

Jonathan unties himself from the sleeping Hessians at night, gathers the boy, and escapes into the dark forest.

Jonathan reaches a campfire and learns from the Corporal that American soldiers executed the farm couple as spies.

Jonathan retrieves his borrowed musket and smashes it against the farmhouse fireplace, sobbing with rage.

Jonathan joins the American Revolution as an eager thirteen-year-old, only to be overwhelmed by the chaos and terror of his first real battle. He flees into the forest and is captured by three Hessian grenadiers, who lead him through the woods as their prisoner. At an abandoned farmhouse, Jonathan discovers a young orphaned boy and demands that the Hessians help bury the boy's dead parents. Escaping at night with the boy on his back, Jonathan reaches the Corporal's campfire and learns the shocking truth that American soldiers executed the farm couple. When the Corporal leads an attack on the sleeping Hessians, Jonathan witnesses their deaths and destroys his borrowed musket in despair, returning home forever changed by what war truly means.

Jonathan's journey from eager recruit to disillusioned soldier.

Jonathan's father looks at him with fearful eyes and warns him not to leave and join the fight.

Jonathan's mother, hearing no news, suggests he go to the tavern to find out what the bell means.

Jonathan arrives at the tavern and learns from the bell-ringing boy that enemy soldiers are heading their way.

The tavern owner offers Jonathan the chance to slip out the back door unnoticed; Jonathan refuses and takes the musket.

The Corporal announces at a bridge that the enemy has more soldiers than first reported, and the volunteers grumble.

Jonathan's father's friend asks if his father gave permission to fight; Jonathan gives no answer and drops back.

Expected reinforcements from another town fail to arrive before the volunteers must face the Hessians.

A woman drawing water in Rocktown runs away in fright when told that enemy soldiers are approaching.

Jonathan fumbles to load his long musket during the battle, nearly letting the ball roll back out of the barrel.

Three Hessians break from the battle and charge after Jonathan as he runs through the trees.

The youngest Hessian teaches Jonathan the German word for soldier — 'soldat' — as they walk the road together.

Jonathan loads a captured Hessian musket, aims it at the sleeping old soldier, but cannot bring himself to fire.

A French volunteer at the campfire warns Jonathan that the Corporal is brave in battle but dangerous when the fighting stops.

The Corporal wakes Jonathan before dawn and insists he is still needed as a soldier for one final mission.

Jonathan's father turns from his hoeing, sees his son return home, and asks if he is wounded.

From the moment the tavern bell rings, the adults in Jonathan's life try to redirect him away from war — his father with fear in his eyes, his mother sending him only for news, and the tavern owner offering an easy escape through the back door. Jonathan ignores every warning and joins the march, where the Corporal withholds the full truth about the enemy's strength and the reinforcements that never arrive. The battle proves nothing like Jonathan imagined, and when Hessians break off to chase him through the trees, his desperate situation becomes entirely real. Among the Hessians, small moments of human connection emerge — a young soldier teaching him a single German word — even as Jonathan faces the moral crisis of holding a gun on a sleeping man. Back among the Americans, a wise French volunteer offers a sobering portrait of the Corporal, and when Jonathan finally reaches home, his father's simple question — 'Are you wounded?' — carries the weight of everything.

The warnings, missed chances, and quiet moments surrounding Jonathan's day at war.

Running toward the tavern, Jonathan decides he will ask to join the fight rather than simply seek news.

From a hilltop, Jonathan sees Rocktown in the distance while dark storm clouds build ominously to the west.

The Hessians click bayonets onto their muskets and fan out into wide attack rows as they advance.

Jonathan collapses face-first in the forest after fleeing the battle and sobs alone with pain and shame.

The Hessians stop on the road, and Jonathan realizes from their confused looks that they are completely lost.

A figure darts between the foggy trees, and Jonathan wonders whether rescue or more danger is near.

Jonathan milks the farmhouse cow and feels briefly calmed by the familiar chore amid his terrifying captivity.

The old Hessian ties a rope between his own leg and Jonathan's ankle before falling asleep.

Jonathan goes outside the farmhouse and lies under the night sky, reflecting on how eager he felt that morning.

Jonathan learns at the campfire that the American volunteers actually won the battle at Rocktown that day.

A French volunteer speaks with the orphaned boy in French, and the boy sobs and reveals what happened to his parents.

Jonathan learns at the campfire that the man who fell against him during battle was his father's friend, now dead.

The Corporal cocks his weapon and orders Jonathan forward toward the farmhouse with a single word: 'now.'

Jonathan steps inside the dark farmhouse and wakes the young Hessian to warn him that Americans are surrounding them.

After the Hessians are shot dead, the Corporal bends down and quietly closes each soldier's eyes.

Jonathan's day pivots on a string of decisive moments that slowly dismantle his belief in the glory of war. His private choice to join the fight rather than just gather news sets everything in motion, and by the time he stands on a hilltop watching storm clouds brew over Rocktown, unease has already begun replacing his excitement. In the chaos of battle and its shameful aftermath in the forest, Jonathan confronts the gap between the war he imagined and the war that exists. As a prisoner, his careful observations — the Hessians' confusion, a figure in the fog, the quiet calm of milking a cow — become the tools of his survival and escape. The campfire revelations strike hardest of all: the battle was actually won, a man he knew was killed, and the farm couple he helped bury were executed by his own side. Every turning point leads Jonathan toward the final act — warning the Hessians despite the Corporal's orders — and the haunting image of the Corporal gently closing the eyes of the men he just killed.