Captain John Sanford, the sturdy and determined former master of a British cargo-ship, has spent the last decade imprisoned in Communist China, undergoing a horrific ‘re-education’ after being captured for harbouring an ‘Enemy of the People’ onboard.
When he is finally released and arrives back in Hong Kong, the world is a very different place. The cargo-ship he commanded, the Da Feng, no longer exists, and his place in the company is gone.
When the opportunity to take charge of a small steamship arises, he jumps at the chance to begin a new chapter in his life. The Merdeka quickly becomes a successful inter-island trader, and for Sanford, the ship provides a refuge for his troubled mind.
That is, until a sudden and appalling event shatters the new life he has built when an unexpected enemy causes an accident that puts both ship and crew in peril.
(This story is a sequel to An Absence of Imagination)