Bristol, England, 1717. In order to restore safe passage to the sea lanes, Lieutenant Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy scouts the seas and offers amnesty to all pirates who choose to give up their evil ways and banish the criminals from the hundreds of islands they occupy. An imposing force, Maynard meets his match, a pirate sailing off the Island of St. Vincent: Edward Teach also known as Blackbeard.

An epic battle for control of the seas, for honor of Maynard's beloved Charlotte, and for possession of untold riches that lie buried in ghostly Vulture Island takes place, where Blackbeard's fate will become a symbol of an era's end in the New World.