This is the third book in the Chronicles of the Twenty-One Butterflies series. Read 'Butterfly Islands' and 'Maelstrom' first.

A large army of wailers is suddenly gathering on Butterfly Islands and the Twenty-One Butterflies have to flee for their lives. However, not all of them escape and the female pirates need to risk their own lives to save not only their friends, but the entire Gallows Sound too. At the same time, a young man returns from the dead, but he has brought something with him back. Something dark, not seen in hundreds of years, returns to Gallows Sound.

Buckeye is rising within the ranks of the Twenty-One Butterflies and her relationship to her friends Dawn and Blake becomes more intimate. She fears that by choosing to be with one of them, she pushes the other away. Time, however, is not on the young pirate's side and in the most intimate moment, all hell breaks loose and she and the other Butterflies suddenly finds themselves at the mercy of the Five Sisters.