It is 1806 and Jack Ripley secretly leaves his lover Kitty to become a shipwright in Portsmouth and help England win the Napoleonic wars. But Kitty pursues him and on leaving her village finds a discarded keepsake she gave him… which will have far-reaching consequences. She finds that Jack has been ‘impressed’ – press-ganged - into naval service by the vile Lieutenant Spatchcock who needs more sailors for his battleship, where Kitty sees Jack and boards it to retrieve him… but she becomes trapped as it heads out to sea to fight the French – a stowaway on an all-male ship. Spatchcock wishes to dispose of her but a lustful Captain and extreme events push their lives in different directions, dependent upon one another but forced apart.

A story of love, envy, spite, pursuit and betrayal from the English Channel to Bristol, Boston in the Americas and further afield ensues as Jack is hounded by the seethingly envious and evil Spatchcock who wants him hanged for desertion. So will Jack ever escape his attentions and find true love again with Kitty? Twists and turns abound as Spatchcock closes in, a succession of desperate and unrelated events shaping an exciting tale of unexpected happenings and outcomes. But with the lovers separated on different continents, only Jack has the answers – as long as he can stay alive…