After locating a mysterious treasure out on the frontier, Louis-Armand Guerin leaves North America to report his discovery, but when an English privateer attacks his ship, he is thrown into a maelstrom of mystery, murder, and mythology.

Taken to the distant Indian Ocean, Guerin discovers connections to his prior quest—a legendary ring created by King Solomon, which is capable of commanding spirits and transforming matter. As a trained scholar with frontier grit, Guerin survives his pirate captors, who are hunting down rogue Madagascar pirates with links to the enigmatic Templar Knights. Torn between his discovery on the frontier and the possibility of acquiring the ancient ring, Guerin must battle wits with an alchemist with powerful connections to the English throne who is capable of summoning mercenary fleets to do his bidding. With a ship, a motley crew, and a magic ring, Guerin stands between powerful secret societies bent on global domination. Can one captain stand against empires? Or will an ancient evil fall into the wrong hands?