It is 1792, over ten years after Britain`s defeat by the American colonies, and that bitter humiliation still sticks in the Admiralty`s craw. Now brutal smugglers, many of them naval deserters, occupy the Channel, plying their trade between England and France. Richard Bolitho`s mission: to send three small cutters to fight the treacherous raiders off the coast of Kent. But they are not the only threat facing Bolitho. For across the Channel, revolution grips France, where guillotine is both an instrument of political revenge and a weapon of hate and envy. As war with France looms, Bolitho soon finds himself and his three small ships facing more enemies than friends....