Spring 1792 - across the water revolutionary France lies like a wounded beast, threatening the fragile peace. After two years without a command, Richard Bolitho accepts the thankless task of drumming up recruits and catching smugglers.
At the Nore with just three topsail cutters, he encounters a new enemy - the Brotherhood - as cruel and ruthless as any foreign adversary. Protected by men of influence on both sides of the Channel, this brutal gang holds the Medway towns in a grip of terror. And in Allday, a self-confessed deserter, they find a willing recruit.
The beast stirs and war becomes inevitable. Surrounded by treachery and deceit, Bolitho and his ‘band of brothers' sail into the cannon's mouth for the honour of England and a King's ransom, in a final attempt to change the course of history...