When Long John Silver lures Jim Hawkins back to the Caribbean for Flint's second hoard, they stumble on perplexing clues to an ancient Chinese treasure. Two orphan girls in Havana help them unlock the secret. Tabitha, a runaway slave who saw her mother killed by the Spanish Commandante, lives only for revenge. Meilu, the last of an old Chinese colony in Havana, lost her family to smallpox. Teetering on the edge of womanhood, and wondering about the transformation, the two girls join with Hawkins and Silver in the quest for the treasure. Together they solve the mystery of four strange seashells in Billy Bones' sea chest, and fight Chinese mercenaries holding the key to Meilu's family history. In a sea cave below the Commandante's fortress, they come face-to-face with a Chinese sea goddess who has guarded the Emperor's jade, ceramics, and silk for 300 years. In the end Hawkins and Silver battle the Spanish garrison as the two young girls face the Commandante on the ramparts of the fortress-but now they know who they are, and can draw on the strength of their destiny.