The narrative begins with the conflicts over the succession to the throne of Persia. When Darius II dies, his brother Artaxerxes succeeds him on the throne. However, Darius's son, Cyrus the Younger, coveting power, gathers a military force of one hundred thousand Persians and thirteen thousand Greeks, mainly Spartans, and marches against Artaxerxes. In 401 BC, the two armies clash at Cunaxa near the Euphrates River. Cyrus is killed in the battle, and his army is defeated. Xenophon's Greeks are left alone in a hostile and inhospitable land, without food, with destroyed weapons, thousands of kilometers away from home... Through countless dangers and hardships, with only his inexhaustible mental fortitude, Xenophon manages to bring his men from Babylon to the sea, which will eventually lead them home.