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Thomas Crabbe enters the Royal Navy just after Waterloo. He boards the Donegal, commanded by Captain Knox, where he becomes assistant to Billy MacDonald, the officers' cook and meets Trim, the ship's cat. Billy dies, and due to a permanent injury, Crabbe is made cook. Thomas chooses an assistant, Sam, from the enslaved people aboard.
An American privateer ship seizes the Donegal. Crabbe, Trim, and Sam (real name Yacoumbe) transfer to an American ship as pressed crew. The British capture this ship, and Crabbe, with the freed crew, boards the Renown, homeward bound for England.
The Renown is captured by escaped slaves, and Yacoumbe joins them. Crabbe and the other crewmen transfer to the evacuated ship and sail to England. On arrival, amidst the confusion, Crabbe absconds with Trim.
Crabbe takes a Royal Mail coach home to see his mother. The neighbours inform him she died in a fire. Thomas rents her cottage, and whilst working as a cook in the local tavern, he meets Daisy, whom he begins courting.
Daisy's brother, Joseph Lawrence (a highwayman), holds up a coach but is ambushed and incarcerated in Newgate Gaol. Daisy and Thomas borrow a coach and travel to London to rescue Joseph, but they are too late to prevent him from being hanged.
Returning home, they encounter a damaged coach containing Dr Willis, physician to George III and his equerry, Neale. They swap coaches and drive to Kew Palace so Willis can treat the ailing King.
Whilst there, Daisy meets Queen Charlotte. Neale approaches Thomas and enlists him as a spy for the Prince Regent. They must infiltrate the French as Napoleon plots to regain his throne whilst in exile. Neale arranges for Crabbe to enter the service of Lord Palmer, an anti-French ally and spymaster.
After marrying, Thomas and Daisy enter Palmer's household. After two years, they travel to Paris to meet a low-level intelligencer, who turns out to be Captain Knox. He arranges for Crabbe to meet the English agent, Shegoe.
During their last meeting, Shegoe and Thomas narrowly escape a mob, but Thomas is attacked, barely escaping with his life.
Whilst waiting to embark on a ship to England, the Crabbes witness a slave market auctioning a Negro man. Thomas recognises him as Yacoumbe. Thomas buys Yacoumbe and, over a pint of ale, offers his friend a position in the service of the (now) King George IV.
