Newly-promoted Captain Nathan Peake is despatched to the Caribbean to take command of the British navy's latest frigate the 32-gun Unicorn. But the Unicorn already has a tragic history of mutiny - and murder. And her previous captain has washed up in New Orleans with his throat cut. Meanwhile the Revolutionary authorities in Paris have sent the best frigate in the French fleet the 44-gun Virginie on a secret mission to spread war rebellion and mayhem from the shores of Cuba to the swamps of the Mississippi Delta. While the Unicorn embarks on her epic duel with the Virginie Nathan confronts the seductive charms of Sabine Delatour the intrigues of the American agent Gilbert Imlay as well as pirates…