The opposing currents of romance and war bedevil Ryan Lone Pine. As he struggles to reconcile his family history, his duty and his heart amidst the turmoil of the 1838 Patriot War, he stands to either win the woman he loves, die on the noose, or toil a lifetime in a distant penal colony.

Counter Currents is a novel about smugglers, river pirates, rebels, love and battle. Spanning 1837 to 1845, most scenes are set against the beauty and grandeur of the Thousand Islands during the drama of the Patriot War.

Ryan is just 19 when he arrives alone in colonial Canada. He spends his first summer with a family of displaced Algonquins, who give him a new name. As winter approaches in late 1837, Ryan canoes to Kingston just as the colonies rise up in rebellion. Ryan, the grandson of an Irish rebel, avoids involvement—at first.

In the spring, he canoes to Clayton, New York, to trade furs. He meets the legendary Bill Johnston, Johnston's family, and many fellow smugglers and rebels. (Johnston, a smuggler, river pirate, and War-of-1812 American privateer, was so feared that the British in the 19th-century Canadian colonies called out the army every time his name made the newspapers.)

Johnston schools Ryan in the smuggler's ways and coaxes him to join the Hunters Lodge, a militant secret society dedicated to the overthrow of the British in Canada.

Ryan's first taste of armed conflict is a midnight raid on a private steamer, the Sir Robert Peel. Johnston, Ryan, and a dozen others attack the ship, remove the passengers and crew, and then loot and burn it.

Johnston spends the summer hiding from a massive US and British force sent to find him. Ryan continues smuggling, while Johnston's 18-year-old daughter, Kate, runs supplies to her fugitive father. Independent, fearless and beautiful, locals called Kate the Queen of the Thousand Islands.

That summer, Kate and Ryan fall in love. Ryan is coached by Kate's older cousin Ada on how to best capture Kate's heart. Over time, Ada develops feelings for Ryan. Ryan, in turn, struggles with his attraction to Ada.

Each step Ryan takes closer to a peaceful life as Kate's husband is matched by deeper entanglement in a glorious but lost cause.