From the bestselling author of Mephisto Waltz--which became a motion picture starring Alan Alda and Jacqueline Bisset--comes a rousing tale of passion, adventure, treachery, and heroism. Justin Savage, illegitimate son of shipping magnate Nathaniel Savage, heads out to sea in 1851 as a cabin boy on one of his father's clipper ships. When the ship is captured by pirates, Justin is forced to act against his own family's ships by the pirates' leader, the gorgeous Madame Ching.