The third novel in the Starke series finds Calypso disrupting Junta filibuster expeditions from Bermuda to the Mexican coast; while the Democratic administration and its Republican successor struggle to avoid entanglement in a stalemated war bleeding out Spain and Cuba. Men, arms, and supplies entering the island from the United States feed growing resentment in Spain and among Cuban loyalists while deteriorating conditions in Cuba sway an American public against Spanish rule. With Europe divided over a Greco-Turkish war and the possibility a Spanish-American war could initiate multinational conflict; Captain Sidney Albert coordinates with naval commanders and other departments to enforce statutes against supporting an insurrection from the United States. Declaring martial law or a blockade are impossible so he must trust Lieutenant Jacob Starke and the elderly steam bark Calypso; aided by the Revenue Service Cutter Vanguard. The impoverished Spanish navy is also dispatching gunboats to the West Indies with orders to end filibustering; forcing Starke and his heterogeneous crew to deal with them, yellow fever, collisions, hurricanes, and a Key West riot. Nassau, Bermuda, Washington, New York, Veracruz, Pinar del Río, and Great Britain as they were in the last years of the Victorian Age provide the ground where Starke must achieve and adapt to his career, command, mission and actions by family, spirited women, and correspondent friend.