Recovering after a bloody battle, the dismayed veterans of HMS Surprise embark upon their voyage home to Falmouth; yet fortune takes an unpleasant turn when the barky is attacked by Turkish frigates, and another destructive battle is inflicted upon exhausted men fighting to escape the wrath of bitter enemies seeking a brutal revenge for prior losses.
There comes a time when every military man who has long served in action understands that he cannot endure further fighting, when his mind has become oppressed by the impossible mental burden inflicted upon it, when his essential spirit has become fragile. At such times, amidst the nightmares, precious succour is sought in hopes and dreams.
Captain O'Connor dreams of his life in Connemara, Dr Simon Ferguson hopes that his home and wife-to-be in Tobermory have not been lost to him, and Duncan MacLeod fears for the health of his wife, struggling with consumption in the Western Isles; and, as losses mount, that slender strand to which HMS Surprises's stalwarts cling is the support of their shipmates, their close friends, their brothers-in-arms.