Edward’s parents, Sir Adolphus Ware and Annabelle Ware, run a British automobile company, Adolphus Motors, from his estate in the south of England, Ware Hall. Edward’s father is so successful that he is knighted and made a sir, a title which Edward can inherit. His hobby is archaeology. He helps to fund an expedition in Carchemish in Turkey in 1913-1914 under the supervision of archaeologist Leonard Woolley. He meets T. E. Lawrence, who has begun a project of drawing military maps as the Great War begins. The little camp in the desert is attacked by German spies sent by the Kaiser. T. E. Lawrence, Leonard Woolley, Sir Adolphus Ware, and Edward must flee back to England. Thus begins the battle of the Lawrence maps, which the Germans will ultimately consider the key to world domination.
