Rescued at sea by Black Mary, Lord James, the libertine aristocrat who longed for adventure, is utterly enthralled by the fierce pirate captain - enough so that when she boards a royal warship, he chooses to fight at her side. With her ship badly damaged, though, Mary must return to her hidden base, an island not on any map. For good reason: the inhabitants of the island are ... the men and women who died at sea, and remain there until it is time to move on to the afterlife ...