War is the father and king of all: some he has made gods and some men; some slaves and others free – Heraclitus of Ephesus.
One hundred years have passed since Captain Stanley Savige, an Anzac, signed up for a hell-raising, secret military mission in January 1918; one he was not expected to survive. Sailing up the palm fringed Tigris River with Dunsterforce to the exotic lands of Scheherazade and whirling dervishes, he never imagined that within a few months he and his men would stare death in the face during one of the most extraordinary episodes of Australian military history. Against immense odds in the mountain wilderness of northern Persia, Captain Savige rescued sixty to eighty thousand Assyrian refugees from genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. But why was he there and who are the Assyrians? Untold until now, this remarkable odyssey speaks to the mystery of human suffering, courage and sacrifice. And it reveals our debt of honour to Captain Savige and his marvellous legacy of hope and compassion.