When Kate Exeter is kidnapped on the shore of the Thames Commander William Monk is enlisted by her desperate husband to save her. Kate's captors are demanding a ransom for her safe return and Monk must arrange a secret handover in the dark slums of Jacob's Island. But someone betrays them and a brutal skirmish breaks out leaving behind death and destruction... Who is to blame for what went wrong? Tensions mount and no one knows who to trust. Then a whistleblower claims that the ransom money was embezzled funds that incriminate Kate's husband and the case takes on a whole new meaning...