Britain stands alone against the forces of Revolutionary France. In 1797, a victorious French Army, led by the youthful Napoleon Bonaparte, is poised to invade Britain. And in his country's darkest hour, Captain Nathan Peake finds himself imprisoned by his own side on the Rock of Gibraltar --- charged with treason.

Nathan must prove his innocence by uncovering the great deception that masks the French war aims. Is the great armada being assembled in Toulon bound for the shores of Ireland, England --- or Egypt?

Nathan's mission will hurl him into the bizarre, seductive and violent world of the Barbary Coast, involve him in one of the greatest battles of the eighteenth century, and force him to call upon all of his strength and ingenuity if he is to survive.