In 1775 the little known Caribbean island of St. Eustatius is experiencing an economic boom unprecedented in scale. British Foreign Office spies based in Barbados are suspicious their French and rebel American counterparts are responsible and that much more is happening below the surface.
Captain Owen Spence is tasked by his spymaster in Barbados with learning more. After establishing a trading operation as cover on St. Eustatius, Owen soon discovers weapon smuggling in support of the American rebels is rampant. Rumours the French are soon going to shift from covert support of the Americans to open, direct conflict with the British are everywhere. Owen knows the nearby French island of Martinique will be where the first strike comes from if war is declared.
Fearing countless more lives will be lost, Owen desperately struggles to learn where the first blow will fall against the backdrop of momentous events in the birth of the new American nation.