Fact-based period drama charting the Chinese Boxer Rebellion of 1900, when activists took over Peking and besieged the international diplomatic quarter. While the British Ambassador organises the beleaguered dignitaries to defend themselves, a force of US soldiers battles through the city to lift the siege, while the scheming Empress of China plots to break the deadlock. Starring Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, David Niven, Flora Robson and Harry Andrews.

Diplomats, soldiers and other representatives of a dozen nations fend off the siege of the International Compound in Peking during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion. The disparate interests unite for survival despite competing factions, overwhelming odds, delayed relief and tacit support of the Boxers by the Empress of China and her generals.