Hornblower is elevated to the peerage. He must save a tyrannical officer from his mutinied crew in the Bay of the Seine and advance the Bourbon cause in Le Harve as the city changes it allegiance away from Napoleon. Hornblower declines to go to the Council of Vienna with his wife and his brother-in-law, the Duke of Wellington and makes a holiday visit to his Flying Colours friends in France only to be there when Napoleon re-enters France again, forcing him to wage a guerilla fight with his old love Marie at his side. Only to find himself captured and condemned to death.