October 1789
The frigate Tempest arrives in Sydney, capital of Britain's infant colony in New South Wales. Her captain, Richard Bolitho, yearns to be posted home to England: instead he is ordered to police the southern trade routes.
Soon he is on a mission deep into the immensity of the Great South Sea, where he must face hazards of fickle winds, pirates and savage islanders. But at the back of his mind there is an even greater danger: the men of the Bounty mutinied in these same waters; and from distant Europe comes news of the
Revolution in France.