Beginning in the 1930''s "The English Patient" tells the story of Count Alm�sy who is a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert along with several other prominent explorers. As World War II unfolds Alm�sy enters into a world of love betrayal and politics that is later revealed in a series of flashbacks while Alm�sy is on his death bed after being horribly burned in a plane crash.