It's the 1890s and Royal Navy Lieutenant St Vincent Halfhyde finds himself out of favour with the Navy and on half-pay ashore when he is summoned to the Admiralty. His mission: to sail to the Bight of Benin in West Africa and spy on the not-so-secret Russian presence there. As a Russian speaker who is familiar with Benin, Halfhyde is confident he's the man for the job--until he runs into Admiral Prince Gorsinski, cousin of the Czar and Halfhyde's former jailer.