Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin pursue a heavy American privateer through the Great South Sea. Their ship, the Surprise, is now also a privateer, the better to escape diplomatic complications from Maturin's mission, which is to ignite the revolutionary tinder of South America. Aubrey will survive a desperate open-boat journey and come face-to-face with his illegitimate black son. Maturin, caught up in the aftermath of his failed coup, will flee for his life into the high, frozen wastes of the