it is the 11th novel within the award-winning Honor sequence of historic maritime fiction. January 1889. German and American naval forces are engaged in an escalating disagreement in Samoa within the South Pacific. Warships are at conflict stations. Naval reinforcements from either international locations are at the manner. the click in Berlin, Hamburg, Washington, and San Francisco is asking for nationwide honor to be defended. At any minute, open struggle may well erupt. All it's going to take is one spark. President Grover Cleveland orders Commander Peter Wake, place of work of Naval Intelligence, to clandestinely accomplish certainly one of issues: both someway hinder all-out warfare among Germany and the United States, or win it decisively on the outset to avoid strive against from spreading around the world. bobbing up with an admittedly makeshift plan alongside the best way, Wake enlists assistance from an not likely trio he encounters within the Pacific: a Hawaiian artillery officer, a renegade Methodist minister, and a stunning widow. regrettably for Wake—and unbeknownst to him—each of them has his or her personal reasons for heading to Samoa. If he fails, hundreds of thousands internationally will die. it's a drawback correct out of today’s headlines: whilst do you go the road of civilized habit to almost certainly shop lives? How do you reside with the implications? Amidst this hindrance, Wake comes to a decision to hire a repulsive tactic that ends up in horror for a member of his staff, whatever he'll remorse for the remainder of his existence. The intrigue is as lethal because the motion during this novel, which culminates in a single of the main major occasions in Pacific—and American—naval history.