Pride, the curse of the Loveday family, may also be its salvation. While Adam Loveday struggles to maintain the family shipyard and to develop his new lands at Boscabel, his twin, St John, bears a bitter grudge against him for having won the yard he considers his birthright. Then Desiree Richmond arrives unexpectedly from Virginia, and Adam is appalled to learn that she believes herself engaged to St John - though his brother's wife is still living.

In London, young Tamasine tries to keep faith with Rupert Carlton, who, seems oddly elusive. And on a convict ship bound for Botany Bay, the family's blackest sheep is battling to survive. Yet both Tamasine and Japhet, the former highwayman, are fiercely proud of the Loveday name and resolved to honour their heritage.