With his ship newly repaired and his journey underway, first-time captain Yann Calec is plying the tramp routes from South Africa to South America. Still reeling from his lover Esther's violent death, he is plagued by nightmares and the sneering insubordination of his second-in-command, René Floss. But remembered clues, strange events, and some vital information from a beautiful stowaway—a political refugee—will lead him down a trail revealing the full extent of De Trichère's sinister plans to scuttle the Belle Hélène. Will Calec manage to escape the shipowner's global web of co-conspirators?