It is the mid-seventeenth century and Lady Romilly Fielding, beautiful, rich and spoilt is travelling to Virginia to visit relatives who own plantations there. She is accompanied by her betrothed, whom she does not love, plus several other friends and servants, but there is a storm when they reach the West Indies and they are shipwrecked on a tropical island. Set upon by natives, she and her companions are rescued by a mysterious man and his ruffian followers. He is Armand Tertius, the scourge of the Caribbean, a deposed aristocrat who has become a pirate, living like an emperor in his fortress and controlling all the area around. He has slaves of both sexes and a stunning mistress, and introduces Romilly to pain and pleasure and becomes her master. Her pride is ground into the dust and, although she has other suitors, when the time comes for her to be rescued by a British ship, she can't make up her mind whether to leave Armand or remain in his Devil's Paradise forever, captivated by this intriguing sea-wolf.
