The Baltic, 1854. Navies, like armies, have camp followers, and the British fleet that sails to the Baltic on the eve of the Crimean War is no exception. Along with the floating grog shops and brothels come the 'war tourists' - aristocratic gentlemen of leisure travelling in their luxurious yachts to see the war first-hand. When Viscount Bullivant and his family are taken prisoner by the Russians, it falls to Commander Kit Killigrew to negotiate their release. But before long Killigrew and the Bullivants are prisoners of the feared Tsarist secret police. In the ensuing forty-eight hours, Killigrew must escape, rescue the Bullivants, steal back their yacht, sail through the treacherous Ekenas Archipelago and take on a Russian paddle-sloop with an unarmed schooner. And in Captain-Lieutenant Count Mikhail Yurievich Pechorin, he may finally have met his match...