At the age of 17, Colin Wyndham is wrongfully accused of murdering his father, the Earl of Montcleve. A decade later, he remains on the run from justice and his older brother's vengeance. During his exile, he has joined the Brethren and captains a pirate ship known as the Blackbird. During an ill-fated route between the Blackbird and an English man-o-war in Caribbean waters, Wyndham and some of his crew are taken captive and imprisoned on Barbados where they await execution. Katherine Abbot, a young widow, has joined her brother James and his wife on the isle of Barbados in the hopes of beginning a new life. James Sutcliffe, the commodore of the English regiments occupying British-held Barbados, considers it a coup that he has finally captured the elusive captain of the Blackbird. He does not reckon on Colin's cunning or his desperation to stay alive long enough to clear his name and expose his brother for the murderer he is. By a twist of fate, Colin finds the perfect opportunity to free himself and his crew. He takes Katherine Abbot hostage...And so begins a tale of a chase on the high seas, a visit to the infamous pirate enclave of Tortuga, and the powerful attraction awakened between a man made bitter by injustice and a lonely woman who comes to believe in him...