A sailing boat is in collision with a tanker at night in the North Sea. When the damaged boat is towed ashore, the water tank is found to be full of crack cocaine. M15 are brought in, and John Savage, who is now retired from the Special Boat Squadron, and living aboard his motor cruiser in Southern Spain, is asked to help his old contact in M15 to track down these drug smugglers. He returns to the UK, and arrives on the River Medway, where he lets it be known that he is looking to survive by chartering his boat out and without too many questions being asked. He is soon approached and asked to get involved with a little bit of "cigarette smuggling" from Holland to the Medway. All very low key, it seems, but the smugglers are in business with the Triads, and it is certainly nothing to do with cigarettes. Soon bodies are piling up, and it is up to John Savage, aided by two SBS operative friends from his time with the service, to put an end to this. The action is fast and furious, but eventually the smugglers are all tracked down and arrested or destroyed. Or are they?