"When you give something, you cannot expect it to be returned." So says Lady Matcham when she gives Sarah the beautiful blue cloak to keep her warm on her long journey from North Hampshire to Sussex. It's 1814 and rumours abound in the country. Will Napoleon attempt to invade, despite his losses at Trafalgar? Aunt Babs, who is expecting another baby, has had a serious fall and thirteen-year-old Sarah has been sent to help the family, as her cousins are either too unwilling or too young to help their mother. Uncle Tobias is the Chief Coast Guard and he and his menpatrol the inlet of Firlingham. This is the first time Sarah has seen the sea, and she begins to suspect her uncle may be in league with smugglers or, perhaps, even worse. He warns her that the chalk cliffs of Firlingham are beautiful yet dangerous, and the slightest slip could prove fatal... It is Benjamin, the young Caribbean sailor, who fought alongside Lord Nelson at Trafalgar, who helps her to deliver an important message to the Admiralty but then, at the last moment, it seems that all of their hard work will be for nothing. Will she be in time to save England?