The story takes place in the south of France, against the backdrop of the French Revolution, Napoleon's rise to power, and the French-English rivalry in the Mediterranean. Peyrol is a master-gunner in the French republican navy, pirate, and for nearly fifty years "rover of the outer seas." He attempts to find refuge in an isolated farmhouse named Escampobar on the Giens Peninsula near Hy res. We read about Peyrol's attempt at withdrawal from an action and blood-filled life, his involvement with the pariahs of Escampobar farm, and the struggle for his identity and allegiance, which is resolved in his last voyage.