"Jack's assignment: to capture the Indian Ocean islands of R�union and Mauritius from the French. That campaign forms the narrative thread of this rollicking sea saga. But its substance is more beguiling still." �Elizabeth Peer, Newsweek

The year is 1810 and Great Britain is again at war with France. British naval officer Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a command, living in domestic bliss with his young family�until his friend Stephen Maturin arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a commodore�s pennant and mount an expedition against the French-held islands of Mauritius and La R�union. But the difficulties of carrying out these orders are compounded by two of Aubrey�s own captains: Lord Clonfert, a pleasure-seeking dilettante, and Captain Corbett, whose severity pushes his crew to the verge of mutiny. Meanwhile, news from home that will change the course of Aubrey�s life struggles to reach him.