Desperate to escape the vengeance of London’s notorious Hellfire Club, high society courtesan Meg Eaton marries Elias Bramwell, bosun aboard a British frigate. The man holds less allure for her than the prospect of a quick and safe passage to India. But when mutineers take the ship and cast Elias and the other officers off to certain death in a leaky boat a thousand miles from land, Meg must fend for herself.

She wins a temporary reprieve with the promise of treasure buried on a remote island by the notorious pirate Ben Ringgold. The treasure exists only in a sea tale she once heard from Elias, who himself set little store by it. Yet she has no other defense than to reveal clues to the supposed treasure one by one.

Wielding both her knowledge of men and a ready cutlass, Meg plays the pirates against each other, buying time as they descend ever further into savagery. But the treasure island draws close, and with it a reckoning even greater than she can know.

For a salty tale of pirate treasure, ringing cutlasses, broadsides and do-or-die romance, come aboard HMS Cygnet as she blazes a bloody course through the Golden Age of Piracy.