The year is 1844. Slavery has been legally abolished by virtually every country involved in the African slave trade. But the demand for slave labor by colonialists in the West Indies, the Americas and the Caribbean are pushing the now illegal trade to new heights. Together with 365 other African captives, a mysterious African Ashanti Princess is taken on board the Portuguese slaver, Andorinha. She joins the extraordinary African Koromantyn warrior who seems to have partial command of the ship. Four officers in command of the schooner's crew of 22 miscreant sailors collected from various bars and wharves from Portugal to Cuba embark on what promises to be a brutal 64 day voyage from Nigeria's southern coast headed to a remote port in Cuba where slaves are still being sold to the highest bidders. Under typically horrid conditions, half the chained captives would perish en route. But this was not to be a typical voyage. What happens on board the Andorinha during the first two weeks out is unlike any such voyage before or since. When this extraordinary black warrior and the African Princess find each other, and the Andorinha finds itself under attack by Arab pirates coming to take her, a battle of wits, courage and sudden death erupt. The pirates want the Princess at any cost but the Koromantyn Warrior is not about to let that happen.