The village of Moonfleet lies half a mile from the sea, in the centre of Moonfleet bay, a death trap for sailors caught in a south-westerly gale. It was on a cold February night in the year seventeen hundred and fifty eight that young John Trenchard, a boy of 15, set off to the graveyard in search of the treasure that was said to be guarded by the ghost of Blackbeard. But it was not the light from Blackbeard's lantern that John saw that night, but from smugglers in the bay. And soon, he was to be caught up in their dangerous world, and his life would change forever.