1666. The Four Days' Battle. Once again Captain Quinton finds himself in the thick of the action, fighting the Dutch in one of the epic encounters of the age of sail. But the battle is a disaster: the fleet is mysteriously divided, with part of it sent to meet a French threat that never materialises, while thousands are slaughtered by the Dutch. As popular fury turns violent, the King decides heads must roll, and Quinton is sent to rebellious, pirate-infested Plymouth to root out the source of the false intelligence that cost so many British lives. It is an unenviable role – especially when all the evidence seems to point towards an old friend and boon companion. Then Quinton receives an urgent message from his wife, the usually level-headed Cornelia, begging him to come home to London at once...