The nineteenth century has just begun, but it has not arrived quietly.
At least, not on the high seas, where Lieutenant Oliver Anson and his comrades have been fighting the Napoleonic Wars. A tenuous peace finds them enjoying some respite. And for Oliver, there are matters of the heart to be resolved back at home.
But nobody is taking anything for granted. Which is how Anson and his friends, including the rakish French aristocrat Hurel, find themselves undertaking clandestine work in France, just as the peace begins to falter and the threat level rapidly rises.