1780: Seventeen-year-old Alan Lewrie is a brash, rebellious young libertine. So much so that his callous father believes a bit of navy discipline will turn the boy around. Fresh aboard the tall-masted Ariadne, Midshipman Lewrie heads for the war-torn Americas, finding--rather unexpectedly--that he is a born sailor, equally at home with the randy pleasures of the port and the raging battles on the high seas. But in a hail of cannonballs comes a bawdy...

While ashore and outfitting his new frigate, HMS Savage, Captain Alan Lewrie must defend himself when a Jamaican court finds him guilty of stealing a dozen Black slaves. Meanwhile, his wife, Caroline, begins receiving anonymous poison pen letters and Lewrie must return to sea to join the close blockade of the Gironde River in France.

Promoted to frigate captain after proving himself in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, Alan Lewrie confronts a mutiny that rages through the British fleet and the reappearance of an old enemy.