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, patrolling the waters surrounding India and the Orient, stands to become very wealthy if he can find Napoleon's ships and plunder the gold they are carrying.
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.
Captain Jack Aubrey, ashore after a successful cruise, becomes entangled in the London criminal underground and in government espionage when he is persuaded by a casual acquaintance to make some investments in London.
Ship's doctor Stephen Maturin, a British intelligence agent, stands as the sole bulwark against the sabotage of his friend Captain Jack Aubrey's mission in Malta.