First sent on a decoy mission to the Gulf of Guinea, Aubrey's seamanship and Maturin's resourcefulness as a secret intelligence agent are tested at their true destination, Ireland, where the French are mounting an invasion.
Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin form a friendship in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. Life aboard a man-of-war in Nelson's navy is described.
Captain Jack Aubrey, accompanied by ship's surgeon and intelligence operative, Stephen Maturin, sails for Cape Horn, assigned to intercept an American frigate that is disrupting the British whaling trade.