In Pretoria, South Africa, in 1902, Major Charles Bolton (Rod Mullinar) is summoned to a meeting with Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener (Alan Cassell). He is told that three officers of the Bushveldt Carbineers—Lieutenants Breaker Morant (Edward Woodward), Peter Handcock (Bryan Brown), and George Witton (Lewis Fitz-Gerald) -- have been arrested and charged with murdering captured Boer and a German missionary. Explaining ominously that Wilhelm II, German Emperor has protested diplomatically about the latter killing, Kitchener asks Major Bolton to appear for the prosecution. To the Major's visible dismay, he is told that witnesses which would help the defence have been sent to British Raj and that the defence counsel is expected to give him no trouble.