Thomas Chinnery is a young assistant to a Master Apothecary of England, 1597, entrusted by his master with a perilous journey into the Portuguese--controlled waters of East Africa and India. But the captain of the ship on which Chinnery sails has piracy on his mind, rather than trade. And when they attack a small, rich ship fleeing the city of Goa, Thomas Chinnery is set on the path that will lead him through his darkest nightmares into the dungeons of the Inquisition and thence to the heart of ancient India.