Captain Sir Richard Giles has become the Earl of Camshire on the unlamented death of his father. The old scoundrel’s death has complicated Giles’s and his wife Daphne’s lives because Giles now is a member of the House of Lords, and the tangle of problems arising from entails on his properties and the dubious uses Giles’s father had made of his holdings require their vigorous attention.
These challenges are added to problems stemming from the discovery that Giles’s prize agent has been embezzling and misusing funds entrusted to him. Both Giles and Daphne are involved in solving these problems, though Daphne plays the larger role since Giles still commands his frigate Glaucus. In that role he is busy harassing enemy ports and ships and supporting King George’s status as ruler of Hanover. In a world where law enforcement is spotty at best, both Giles and Daphne have to take active roles in making sure that their property is protected and that Napoleon cannot safely ignore the land he could not invade.