December, 1801. The Peace of Amiens ends the long war with Napoleon Bonaparte's France, but Captain Alan Lewrie, Royal Navy, is appalled by its consequences. What is a dashing and successful frigate captain to do with himself ashore on half-pay? And where will Lewrie twiddle his thumbs until the war begins again, as he's sure it will? Rejoin his wife and in-laws who (mostly) despise him like the Devil hates Holy Water, on his rented farm in Surrey? Peace and domesticity are hellish hard on the rakehells!
Yet by the spring of 1802, Lewrie and his Caroline have somewhat reconciled and are off to make a go of a second honeymoon-in Paris, France, of all places! There, Lewrie finds himself rubbing shoulders with soldiers, spies, and even First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte himself. When Lewrie can't help spurring Napoleon into a "kick-furniture" rage, he and Caroline must flee for their lives.
When war breaks out again in May of 1803, Lewrie has fresh orders, a new frigate, and a chance to punish and pursue the French, but it's no longer for duty or king and country-now it's personal!