Since his youth, José Albañez has wanted only one thing — to follow his father into the joiner’s trade. His uncle Domingo, however, drawn him unwillingly away form his comfortable life in Havana into his Caribbean web of trade and smuggling. He struggles to escape a life at sea, but his uncle’s plans, and the arrival of a British fleet in 1762 to besiege Havana, threaten to take the choice out of his hands.