After his father passes away and Dhondu Pant Nana Saheb, the adoptive son of exiled Maratha Peshwa Bajirao II, is denied rights as the Peshwa's successor by the British, he attempts to reclaim his title but is again rejected. The British then portray Nana Saheb as a wicked monster, a barbarous butcher, and the criminal mastermind of the "Sepoy Mutiny," which swept over India from 1856 to 1859, as a mutiny breaks out in Kanpur in 1857 and he emerges as its commander. However, he emerges as a hero to a people in upheaval who fights against colonial oppression and emerges as a precursor to the leaders who deliver freedom to the country less than a century later.