Captain Jack Aubrey's hasty trip aboard a dispatch vessel from the Dutch East Indies to England where he is supposed to take command of the fastest and best-armed frigate in the Navy, is interrupted by the outbreak of the War of 1812.
Captain Jack Aubrey, and ship's doctor and spy Stephen Maturin, encounter castaways, shipwrecks, and murder when they set sail for Cape Horn on a mission to foil an American frigate's plan to sabotage English whalers.