To save his company from Bankruptcy, Nicholas van der Poele sets sail in the wake of Henry the Navigator to Africa, and on his own account, to answer a challenge from his bitterest adversary He does not expect to meet Gelis van Borselen there, sister of the woman he loved who died on Cyprus In Africa, where heathen and Christian cultures clash, where conscience conflicts with profit, the risks are unnumbered, but the rewards are riches beyond men's dreams