Beginning in 1795, Napoleon’s rise casts a shadow over the dispersed Morlands. At Morland Place, Jemima watches her children’s marriages unravel: James and Mary Ann grow further apart, Lucy’s affair with a naval officer becomes an open scandal, and William supports a mistress he cannot marry. The family’s emotional disorder mirrors a society whose restraints are loosening under the pressure of war.
Mary accompanies her naval husband and gives birth during the Battle of the Nile, while Lucy faces separation as fighting captains return to sea. Jemima’s death briefly draws the family together but cannot resolve its conflicts. The novel connects naval warfare and revolutionary Europe with a crisis of inheritance, marriage and legitimacy, as the Morlands enter a century dominated by Napoleon.
