Commissioned to rescue Governor Bligh of "Bounty" fame, Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend and surgeon Stephen Maturin sail the "Leopard" to Australia with a hold full of convicts. Among them is a beautiful and dangerous spy - and a treacherous disease that decimates the crew. With a Dutch man-of-war to windward, the under-manned, outgunned "Leopard" sails for her life into the freezing waters of the Antarctic, where, in mountainous seas, the Dutchman closes...